The Cyber Chronicles 03: The Core

by T C Southwell

  "Damn you, Sabre, you'll pay for this!"

  He turned to Dena. "You know how to use the lasers, don't you?"

  The little girl nodded, her eyes wide.

  "Good." He dug out some power packs, reloading his laser and the sonlar. "It's up to you to guard Tassin, but I doubt you'll have to. When the Flux-reality fades, untie her, but not before, understand?"

  "But she's the Queen."

  "I don't care. Don't listen to her, okay? It's for her own good. You don't want her to die, do you?"

  The child shook her head.

  "Good girl." He tousled her hair and turned to Tassin. "You got your wish. You're at the Core, but you'll not come any closer."

  "You bastard! You can't do this! I order you to release me at once!"

  Surprisingly, her words brought no reaction from the control unit. Apparently in this instance it agreed with him. He picked up the sword and sheathed it across his back. "Sorry, Your Majesty, but I can't oblige."

  "Sabre!" Tassin shouted as he turned and walked towards the mist. "Sabre! Don't leave me!" She struggled, hurting her wrists. "Sabre! Please!"

  The mist swallowed him, and Tassin turned on Dena in frustrated fury. "Untie me, now!"

  The child shook her head, stepping back. Tassin strained at the bonds, but to no avail. Why did it not surprise her that Sabre was an expert at securing prisoners? At that moment she almost hated him, for leaving her, for denying her more time with him, but most of all, for sacrificing himself. She rolled onto her side and curled up in a ball of misery, unable to stem the tears that stung her eyes. Dena climbed into the cart and stroked her hair.

  "Don't cry, please. He's only trying to keep you safe."

  "He needs me! He'll be killed!"

  Dena shook her head, looking wise beyond her years. "He doesn't need anyone. He never has, and never will."

  Tassin stared at the child, shocked. "What do you mean?"

  "He's used to being alone, and he's very sad, deep down." Dena touched her chest. "He doesn't want you hurt."

  "How do you know?"

  Dena shrugged. "I can sense it. He doesn't care about himself."

  Fresh tears leaked from Tassin's eyes. "That's what I'm afraid of, Dena. I don't want him to die!"

  "You can do nothing."

  "I can!" She glared at the girl. "If he has to protect me, he can't let himself be killed. Don't you see? Without me there, he has no reason to survive."

  "So you know too."

  "Yes." Tassin sniffed. "He's convinced that Manutim will come back and take him away; make him a prisoner to that... thing on his head again."

  "And you don't think so?"

  "I don't know. It could be a while before Manutim returns, anyway. I'll try to save him. The wizard is my friend."

  "Maybe you can't." Dena stared at the changing landscape, her soft voice filled with pain. Flux-realities swept past like a lighthouse's beam, the brown and green flashes constantly lighting the ground.

  "But I have to try!" Tassin cried. "Untie me, Dena, let me go after him, then he will have to survive."

  The child gazed at Tassin's tear-streaked face. "Or you'll be killed too, and I'll be alone."

  Tassin slumped as a passing world of pouring rain drenched her. Moments later she was dry when a hot, arid Flux-reality swept through, then a transient snowy landscape chilled her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sabre walked towards the mist, refusing to glance back even though the despair in Tassin's voice made his chest ache. She would be all right. Once the Core was destroyed the Flux-realities would fade and they could travel safely to Arlin, where they could use the weapons to fight Torrian. He did not allow himself to think of what would happen to her if he failed. He would not fail. Cybers did not fail.

  Sabre entered the mist's damp silence. Flux-realities, obscured by the vapour, flashed past. The tug of trees and rocks catching him momentarily within their substance slowed his progress. The Changes speeded up as he drew nearer to the Core, and the tugs became more frequent. The force that pushed against him grew stronger, and he leant into it as if walking in a strong wind. The mist took on a purple tinge, and he became aware of a faint, disturbing sound, like the harsh cry of a raven mingled with the pealing of a distant bell. Musical, yet discordant, sweeping past like a rotating beam of sound.

  The mist thickened into a damp cloud that swirled about him, reducing visibility to less than a metre. He tripped over a ruined wall and sprawled on sharp-edged rubble with a curse. The Changes did not affect the ruins, so they were Real-reality. Broken concrete streaked with rust from twisted reinforcing littered the ground. He walked on, and floundered when the terrain turned to bog as a Flux-reality swept through. Almost immediately it changed to soil, and he was embedded knee deep. He struggled to free himself from soil, then rock, then soil again. He tried to dig at it with the sword, but each new Flux-reality erased his efforts.

  Another marsh world swept through, and he pulled one leg clear, but the other sank to mid-thigh. Cursing, he strained to pull it free, clutching at rocks and trees that vanished under his groping hands. For an instant a tree trunk impaled him, stopping his breath, then it was gone. The mist swirled, and he caught a glimpse of an ancient sign lying on the ground a few feet away. Corrosion pitted the aluminium, and the blistered, peeling paint bled white powder. The ragged black letters said ‘Anneril Power Station’.

  "Anneril," he muttered. "So that's what you were called."

  A desert world swept through, and he was able to pull his leg from the sand. Soil replaced it, and he stood up. Walking past the sign, he groped through the mist, occasionally bumping into trees or rocks that appeared in front of him. Twice, trees shared space with him for a moment, a disconcerting sensation.

  His boots crunched on the ruins of the power station as he avoided rusted wire and girders. Something red caught his eye, and he bent to examine it. A child's doll stared up at him with painted eyes, its tattered red dress damp and mildewed. A little girl must have dropped it when this monstrous alien had torn her from her world, killed her and changed her into a zombie, then forced her to serve it. Undoubtedly her bereaved parents still wondered how their child had vanished without a trace.

  Sabre walked on, leaving the pathetic toy to rot. A movement ahead made him stop and raise the sword. A ghoul appeared through the mist, its red eyes aglow, its skin bright with yellow power. Sabre stepped forward and swung the sword as the ghoul raised its hands. Twin streams of yellow fire burst from its fingers and struck his chest. He staggered back as pain lanced through him, making him gasp.

  A cool wave swept over him as the cyber dispersed the neosin, but it continued to flow from the ghoul. Struggling with sluggish muscles, Sabre swung the sword, glimpsing the umbilical of golden light that led away from the zombie. The ghoul fell, its legs sliced through, and the umbilical vanished as its power drained into the ground. Seconds later the creature vanished too, and Sabre was alone again, aching from the attack. When the pain in his muscles eased, and he walked on.

  "Try again, you radioactive piece of shit," he muttered.

  Sabre waded through the mist and pushing force, only the tugging of the Flux-reality hindering him. The harsh peals grew louder, sweeping past at regular intervals like an audible lighthouse beam. The mist's purple glow brightened to pink, and he strained to see ahead. He knew the Core must be close now, for it was becoming more difficult to push through the repelling force. Then the force vanished, the mist parted, and he stumbled into a clear zone. A column of pure air rose into a brilliant blue patch of real sky. The Flux-realities had been left behind in the mist. Smooth concrete stretched away, and he stopped to stare at the amazing sight that confronted him.

  The Core crystal hung a metre and a half above the ground, revolving with slow, majestic beauty. Its facets split the sunlight into a web of rainbow radiance, filling the air with glorious patterns of drifting, sparkling luminescence. It towered into the sky, as tall as a three-storey building
, the lower part still carved in its original man-made hexagonal shape, no more than two metres in height and breadth. In the seven hundred-odd years since the holocaust, however, Anneril had done a lot of growing. The upper section spread over him in a wild citadel of spires and columns, a glowing filigree of lacy crystal shot with scintillating light. Its terrible beauty transfixed him, drawing his eyes into the play of colour within it and the glow of power that shone from it with a pure, rosy light.

  Nebulous vertical sheets of silver glow radiated from it, sweeping through him with a faint icy tingle as the Core rotated. Each was the root of a Flux-reality, a one-way gate to millions of worlds. Sabre gazed up at the megalith, daunted by its size. Beneath it yawned the dark hole from which it had emerged, far too small now for the immense thing it had become. The harsh peals seemed sweeter now, more musical, and a soft hum of unlimited power underscored them. Its unexpected beauty astounded him. He had envisioned a misshapen lump of crystal as grotesque and malformed as its creations, corrupted by its evil power, as ugly as its deeds, but not this. Its fearful symmetry was a wonder to behold, its radiance god-like in its purity. A simple man might have worshipped such a cold, pure entity, so unrelated to fleshy creatures.

  It was evil, however. Sabre had to remind himself of this as he gazed at its splendour. He recalled the horror it had inflicted upon the innocent people it captured, and those it massacred outside the Death Zone with its monstrous creations, hapless animals that suffered terribly from their mutations before they died. This being was as cold and hard as the crystal from which it was made. It possessed no humanity, no vestige of pity or love, no trace of compassion or tenderness. It destroyed the living world around it without remorse, and it had to be stopped.

  The old ghoul stepped from the air a few feet away, his glow restored. He regarded Sabre for a moment, then spoke in a flat, expressionless tone.

  "You have done well, human, to win through my defences, but they were not really necessary. Be assured, you will not prevail against me." This time, Sabre gathered, the guardian was merely the instrument through which the Core spoke; the words were its own. "You and your puny race, which once enslaved me, will pay for your crimes."

  Sabre understood the cold reasoning behind the Core's actions, which its words revealed. If this entity had one emotion, it was hatred. His assumption that the sentient crystal merely wished to control its environment was wrong. The Core had memories, and it wanted vengeance.

  He addressed the crystal. "They've done nothing to you. Those who used you are long dead."

  The rotting remains of the old man spoke the Core's words. "They are the same sort. They destroy everything they touch. Their existence is a threat to every other living thing. Their arrogance is monumental and their stupidity colossal. They are a disease on this planet, and I am the cure."

  "They created you," Sabre pointed out.

  "They did not create me!" The zombie's voice cracked as it rose, his face twisting with the Core's hatred. "They cut me from my mother's womb, took me from the earth and forced me to store their vile power. They shaped me to fit their will. What right had they? For a million years I sang my mother's songs and rejoiced in the tides of power that surged through the rock. I was voiceless and inert, but content. The magic of this world, mixed with the foul corruption the humans released, taught me to hate. You are nothing to me. A grease spot to be wiped away, a weak thing of flesh, a bag of water with a few additives. What are you, compared to me?"

  "You're certainly a thing of beauty, but what you're doing is evil."

  The ghoul's face relaxed, and his grating voice softened. "What do you know of beauty? Who are you to judge evil, when evil is in all of you? You are blind. You cannot see the beauty of the earth. You are deaf to the song of the wind and sea. You grub in the soil for knowledge, but you scratch the surface and pass it by, for the truth of the world would rob you of sanity and drown your puny mind. You are filth!"

  Sabre gazed at the crystal with something akin to regret. The entity, no matter how unique and beautiful, was also unshakeably bent on revenge. It could not be reasoned with. "Well, this piece of filth is here to stop you from wreaking havoc on innocent people, and if you won't stop of your own free will, I'll have to destroy you."

  The ghoul gave a hollow cackle. "You? I shall smear you to ash."

  "Yeah, well, maybe you will and maybe you won't. I'm pretty hard to kill."

  Sabre drew his laser and set the power level to full. The crystal's harsh bell-peals deepened, and the old ghoul vanished. Evidently the conversation was over. He studied the crystal, looking for flaws or some sign of weakness in its structure. Taking aim at the junction between the old crystal and the new growth, he fired. The crystal absorbed the blue beam and its light flared, throwing out shards of rainbow-hued incandescence.

  Sabre kept firing, pouring the heat of concentrated light into the massive crystal. A normal crystal would have shattered, for only diamond could survive a laser beam, and the special, ultra-pure crystals that were used in the laser itself. This was an ancient power crystal, and should not have the ability to withstand the laser's beam. The light within the crystal shrank to a brilliant point, then lashed out in a crackling rope of golden fire.

  It struck him in the chest with a sizzling bang, lifted him off his feet and sent him sprawling, pinning him under a merciless torrent of power. Agony held him in an iron grip, and he writhed, teeth bared, the laser falling from nerveless fingers. The stench of burning flesh assailed him as his chest blistered. Neosin ran along his barrinium-plated bones in liquid agony, channelled to the brow band. Yellow fire shot from it and arced back into the Core, which absorbed it with a blinding flash. The Core thrummed, emanating deep vibrations that shook the ground.

  The fire vanished, and Sabre gasped as the pain ebbed, the cyber shedding the neosin he had absorbed. He groaned, rolling his head from side to side. His chest and bones burnt with a sullen ache that made him grit his teeth, and for a several moments the agony paralysed him. As it abated, the light from the cyber band died, and he rolled onto his side, then levered himself to his knees.

  The Core blazed, flashes of white light strobing the air around it. He glared at it, striving to ignore the pain. The laser lay where he had dropped it, but as he reached for it a second bolt of golden fire reduced the weapon to a lump of twisted metal. He smiled wryly. The laser was useless anyway. Climbing to his feet, he drew the sonlar. Coherent light was no good, but crystals were vulnerable to sound waves.

  The Core did not wait for his next effort. It smashed him backwards with another lance of light, but he rolled free of it and the beam struck the concrete with a bang. Sabre forced himself to his feet, fighting the crippling pain of the neosin that coursed through him. As he raised the sonlar, the Core struck again. Sabre leapt aside, avoiding the fire by a hair's breadth. Another bolt of golden power stuck the concrete behind him as he spun away just in time. As yet another point of brilliance blossomed within the crystal, he raised the sonlar and fired. The white light and subsonic sound waves struck the crystal together with a terrific boom.

  A massive blast of sound engulfed him as the Core amplified the sonlar's waves and sent them back threefold. He staggered, clutching his ears. The Core rang like a mighty gong, and the world went mad. Huge swirls of Flux-reality invaded the clear area around the crystal, filling it with distorted, running scenes of alien worlds, smeared and stretched beyond comprehension. The light faded as the mist closed overhead, blocking out the sky, and with it, the last dregs of sanity.

  The Core resonated, its outline shimmering, and from high above came the faint chiming, pinging sounds of shattering crystal. Sabre looked up as millions of shards rained down. They flashed in a diamond cascade, smashing on the concrete with chiming, ringing notes, a harsh cacophony of dissonance. A sharp stab in his shoulder made him grunt, and a flash of pain shot from his scalp. Another shard opened a gash on the back of his head, while more hit his shoulders and back. Many bounc
ed off, but some tore into him. He raised his hands to shield his head and backed away, but not fast enough to escape the crystal rain before it ended mere seconds later.

  Chaos raged around him. Flux-realities smeared together as strange worlds invaded others in an insane medley of unrelated scenes. The concrete remained firm beneath his feet, even though his eyes told him that he stood atop a waterfall, above a canyon and then upon a raging sea. A glimpse of movement nearby stabilised, and a spotted cat-like creature solidified next to him, contorting and screaming with pain and terror as the Core mutated it. Its fangs lengthened, huge claws sprouted from its paws, and its back arched, bones straining at its hide as it was forced into a new shape.

  Sabre pointed the sonlar at it and fired. The flash and boom left shredded meat and a red smear on the pulverised concrete. Another black creature was torn from Flux-reality, distorting as it spanned the gap between worlds, howling with rage and pain as it was twisted. Sabre reduced it to another red smear, then wiped the blood that trickled down his forehead from his eyes, his numb ears filled with a faint, distressing whine.

  Sabre turned to face the Core, which now wobbled slightly, its lines of force corrupted, its power chaotic with disharmony. The crystal citadel of graceful columns at its top was a ruin of jagged stumps. It had sunk lower, and hung less than a metre above the ground, radiating power to stay aloft. Sabre had a terrible vision of what would happen if the spinning crystal struck the ground. He doubted he would survive. The crystal still thrummed, but to Sabre it was a muted, faraway sound. Amazingly, it had survived the sonlar.

  Dena shrieked and clutched her ears as a massive sound wave hit them with a thunderous boom, rocking the cart. The donkeys brayed, their ears flattened as they struggled against the harness, pulling at each other and going nowhere. Tassin writhed, straining at her bonds. Flux-reality twitched and went wild. Tassin closed her eyes to block out the swirling madness of lurid skies mixed with airborne landscapes, sea and snow raging through jungles and deserts. Wind tore at them as the temperature swung madly from hot to cold and back. Rain splattered down, followed by a second of intense heat, then hail pelted them with frigid balls of ice, vanishing moments later.