The Cyber Chronicles 03: The Core

by T C Southwell

  The child screamed again, and Tassin opened her eyes. A creature was torn from a Flux-reality and warped beyond belief, its mouth open in a soundless scream of pain and terror. For a moment its agonised eyes met hers, then it disintegrated into a mangled mass of meat and bones. The roaring gong-drone hammered at her ears, and the cart bucked and rocked as the ground twisted and heaved. The donkeys brayed and struggled as the raging madness pelted them with every conceivable kind of weather and a few that no one had ever encountered before.

  "Dena! Untie me!" Tassin yelled, twisting to look at the huddled child.

  Dena sobbed, scrambled over to her and tugged the knots undone, tears streaking her grimy cheeks. Tassin winced at the horror around them and hugged the child. Dena buried her face in Tassin's midriff, her arms tight about her waist. Another creature appeared in the chaos, rolling and thrashing as it went through a series of hideous mutations, then it was torn apart in a spray of blood. The gong-drone lessened, and Tassin leant close to the child.

  "Dena! I have to find Sabre! I must help him!"

  "No! Don't leave me!" Dena wailed, raising white-ringed eyes.

  "I have to help him! You'll be safe here."

  "No!" Dena shrieked as Tassin tried to pry her arms away.

  She gripped the girl's shoulders and shook her. "Stop it! You must be brave!"

  Dena's eyes flitted to the flickering chaos. "What if you don't come back?"

  "I will. Stay here and keep the donkeys calm."

  Tassin disentangled herself from the shaking child and jumped down. Checking her weapons, she loped in the direction Sabre had gone, her heart pounding. The ground shifted, making her stumble. Branches whipped her, sea water splashed her, and the wind tore at her like a living thing. She rebounded off a tree that appeared and vanished before her, twisting into a smeared desert. Her chin throbbed as she stumbled on, tripped over rocks and splashed through streams that flowed through the air. A galleon sailed past above her, its sails in rags, its crew howling its terror to the wind. She encountered a kneeling zombie, its shrivelled face agape to scream in terrified agony as its decayed hands clawed at its shredding body.

  Chaos reigned. Stones pelted her, sand stung her, and branches clawed at her like wooden hands. Tatters of pink mist swirled around her, and the sky glowed lurid red. She collided with a rock cliff that appeared in front of her and stumbled back to sit down hard, cursed and raised a hand to her throbbing face. Blood ran from her nose and split lip, and a lump swelled on her forehead. Scrambling to her feet, she pressed on, a hand outstretched to ward off other unexpected obstacles.

  A bolt of lightning hit the ground only a metre away, and she staggered away from it, shaking with shock. Tripping over a low wall, she sprawled on rubble-strewn ground, adding more scrapes and bruises to her already extensive collection. As she climbed to her feet again, something wet and hairy slammed into her, making her recoil with a yell as a twisting Flux-creature reeled past, tearing at its distorting body. She fled, vomit crawling up her throat.

  A second wave of sound, accompanied by a hissing scythe of golden power, sent her sprawling on her back. The unfocussed neosin crawled over her in a mantle, sinking into her hands, head and ribs. It passed through her in a wave of throbbing agony, most draining into the ground. She lay gasping, her ears ringing, then scrambled to her feet once more. The world grew darker as the pink light faded to crimson. The glow was brighter ahead, and she ran towards it, filled with dread that Sabre was dead.

  Sabre writhed on a carpet of smashed crystal, clasping his ears as pain lanced into his head. The gong-roar muted, and he lowered his hands, finding them bloody. The second sonlar shot had evinced an unexpected retaliation from the Core. It had amplified the resonance and sent it back with mind-bending force, accompanied by an unfocussed outpouring of neosin that had reddened his skin and made his eyes water. A heavy weight fell on him, and he stared into a ghoul's gaping, decayed face.

  With a grunt of disgust, he hurled it off and leapt to his feet, pulping the rotten corpse with a kick. The creature grabbed his ankle, and he shook it off, only to find himself surrounded. Ghouls clawed at him with bony hands, their sunken eyes blank and decayed, mouths open. He smashed them away, but more pressed forward. Raising the sonlar, he pressed the trigger and swept it through them, shredding them to globs of rotten meat and splinters of bone.

  The Core's light had changed to deep crimson with pulsing pink hues, and a golden nimbus kept it airborne. Its spin had slowed, and, as he watched, it stopped. Its beauty was gone with its radiance and filigree crown, and the red mist formed a hellish scene.

  Sabre stared at it. Two sonic laser blasts had not significantly damaged the crystal, and now it had learnt to turn the sound waves against him with its natural resonance. A cry behind him made him spin around. Tassin stood a few metres away, gazing at him, her hands and arms bruised and bloody, her eyes filled with horror. A wave of cold fear went through him, and he cursed.

  "Go back!"

  Tassin's eyes flicked past him and widened. Sabre swung back to the Core as the light gathered in its centre. He raised the sonlar, then realised that the sonic backlash would kill her. Dropping the weapon, he gripped the hilt of the sword across his back and drew it.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tassin tore her gaze from the monstrous crimson crystal as Sabre drew the sword. The blade reflected the fiery light, making it look like it was formed from flame.

  As he raised it and charged the Core, she shouted, "No!"

  Sabre swung the sword high and smashed it down with all his might as the Core released the bolt. The sword struck the crystal with a screeching chime. The fire leapt into the blade and raced up it. Sabre's back arched, and he flung back his head with a cry of agony. For an instant he glowed golden, then the fire erupted from the control unit in a great flame that rose high into the air and arced back into the Core. Tassin clamped a hand over her mouth as Sabre's legs buckled. He clung to the sword, trapped in the circle of power.

  It seemed an eternity that he hung there, a living conductor for energies that would have reduced a city to ash. The sword was sunk into the crystal for half its length, and Sabre's hands were locked around the hilt, his muscles rigid as the neosin flowed through him. His scream died as he ran out of air, and he drew a harsh breath. The neosin crawled over his skin, some flowing into the ground. It seemed incredible that he still lived, and Tassin ran forward, wanting to end his torture but not knowing how. A spark of gold leapt at her, but all the Core's power was channelled into Sabre, and it was trapped as much as he. The sword tapped it, and the Core sank lower.

  Sabre straightened his legs, every effort clearly a fresh torture. He twisted the sword, his back muscles writhing as he sought to plunge it deeper.

  The Core gave a chiming crack.

  Slowly, like a man underwater, he turned his head. His eyes were closed and his brows drawn together as he struggled against the agony. She barely heard his shout over the Core's rising thrum.

  "Go!"

  Tassin hesitated, torn by her longing to save him and the knowledge that she could not.

  "Run!"

  The Core made a tinkling sound, and a shard of crystal fell from above to smash near her, spraying razor splinters. She cried out as one slashed her leg, and backed away. The thrum deepened and the fire that burnt through Sabre brightened, streaked with silver. He cried out again, and the Core touched the ground. It flared brilliant white, and Tassin staggered back, shielding her eyes. Sabre was silhouetted against it, clinging to the sword. He straightened, and the Core gave a grating creak.

  Terrified, she fled.

  Sabre could not release the sword. It seemed as if his hands were welded to it. He shifted, trying to block out the white-hot agony that seared him. With the last of his waning strength, he thrust the sword in, twisting it. The Core gave an almost human groan. The light burnt through his eyelids, and he dared not open them lest he be blinded. He sensed that Tassin was no longer behind
him, and prayed she had reached safety.

  The Core chimed. There was a dull crack, followed by a creaking, ringing sound as crystal tore. The cracking sounds continued, like ice in warm water, pinging, clicking, chiming. Then it exploded.

  Raw fire swept through him, and he screamed again. Visions flashed before his eyes. The surgeons with their flaying lasers, the trainers' electric prods, the pain of abused muscles, bruised joints and strained lungs. The cyber's domineering, exacting torture. The roar of the explosion seemed distant. Fire engulfed him, and agony flared from his chest and legs. His head was smashed back and twisted aside. The shockwave lifted him and flung him backwards. Hard cold objects ripped into his skin. He went limp, and the ground knocked the wind out of him.

  Sabre opened his eyes. Where the Core had been, an expanding ball of pink dust spread rapidly outwards, crackling bolts of golden flame arcing into the ground. The mist rolled back before the cloud of crystal dust, which swept out and settled in a gentle, sparkling rain. Sabre closed his eyes, and he was falling again.

  Tassin tripped over the ruined wall a moment before the brilliant flash almost blinded her, and a thunderous roar hammered her ears. Rolling into the lee of the wall, she clasped her head and prayed. The shockwave swept over her, tugging at her, then flying crystal filled the air. It whined and hummed as it flew past, smashing into the chaotic Flux-reality with sharp reports. Some shattered against the wall, making her jump and cry out. Icy splinters fell on her back, and she yelped as one stabbed her leg. The explosion's rumble rolled away, leaving a moment of eerie silence, then wind howled past her as air rushed back into the void the explosion had caused.

  Rain and mist mingled with twisted columns of black cloud in the cataclysm's aftermath. The air pressure stabilised and the wind rebounded, gusting with snow and hot rain, whipped into whirling eddies that twisted dust into the air. Tassin raised her head, staring about in horror. She crouched in a sea of crystal. Over it, Flux-reality warped unbelievably in shimmering, violent chaos. Her eyes filled with stinging tears. No one could have survived that explosion. She bowed her head and sobbed, cursing the world, and fate, but most of all, the Core.

  Rising shakily to her feet, she pulled the sliver of crystal out of her leg with a hiss and looked around again. Where the Core had been, a pure white column of mist rose into the sky, aglow with sunlight. She climbed over the wall and walked towards it, her mouth dry. Her stomach churned at the thought of Sabre lying amongst the smashed crystal, bloody and mangled. She ignored the twisting Flux-realities that cavorted around her in a wild dance of madness. Warped landscapes mingled with silently screaming creatures torn between meshed realms. Within the Core's domain, they were merely fleeting mirages of ghostly corruption.

  A huge crater marked the place where the Core had hovered. Chunks of concrete lay in jagged piles, twisted reinforcing thrusting from them like bones protruding from a corpse. She shuddered, scanning the ground for Sabre's body. She wondered if he had been thrown clear or shredded. Bile stung her throat, and she thrust the thought away. Steam rose from the ground, swirling around her, and Flux-realities flickered through it.

  A glint of gold caught her eye, and she hurried towards it. Sabre's sword lay there, oddly golden, its blade aglow with preternatural light. As she approached, she realised that it hummed, and stopped, staring at the weapon. The hilt was warped into an intricate shape that defied the imagination. No craftsman could have sculpted such a hilt; the lines were too fine, the strange patterns too detailed. As she gazed at it, the pattern changed. Tassin blinked, frowning. The sword's thrum grew louder, its glow brightening. She stepped back, and it whined, a faint chiming, then with a flash it turned to crystal.

  Tassin rasped, "The Core!"

  The sword whined again, a rainbow nimbus surrounding it. Hatred burnt her blood, and she grabbed a chunk of concrete and smashed it down on the crystal weapon. It gave a pealing chime as the rock bounced off. The sword was gold once more, unscathed.

  "Hateful thing!" Tassin shouted, "You should have been destroyed!" She kicked dirt at it. "You'll rot here! You're not crystal anymore. Without someone to take care of you, you'll rust away!"

  The sword made a series of sweet, melodic chimes. She spat at it and walked away.

  Sabre fell through a maelstrom of madness. Swirling colours darted and congealed, weird forms loomed and vanished. Cat-like, he fought for balance, tried to get his feet under him, but there was no up or down, only a tumbling fall into chaos. Visions flashed before his eyes, fleeting images a life he had not seen clearly before, now revealed in sharp focus. The nursery pen, filled with hundreds of identical boys. He screamed. His flesh seemed to melt, then reform, and pain flashed through him.

  The cyber hummed. He sensed the vibrations vaguely, a distant sensation utterly devoid of presence. He fell. An instructor thrust a goad into his back, making him writhe and bellow, but with a boy's cracked, unformed voice. The cyber's hum deepened, its vibrations penetrating his head, and he gripped the band. The surgeons' lasers flashed, peeling away his flesh. They thrust their hands into him, and the mind-bending agony increased.

  Sabre fought for sanity, clawing at the fabric of reality while he tried to stem the rising tide of blackness that threatened to engulf him. The cyber flashed red warnings in his mind, evicting him from the terrible nightmare with pulses of pain. The scrolling readouts zipped past, almost too fast to read, but he glimpsed some numbers and words. His bio-status was in the red, and several alerts flashed. He was in a vacuum, then a super-hot atmosphere of methane gas, then the icy chill of pure hydrogen. He screamed again, falling into nothingness, surrounded by madness.

  Tassin stumbled over the ruined wall again, her breath coming in frantic gasps, her mind numb with despair. She could not find Sabre. Crystal shards crunched under her shoes as she hurried back to where the sword lay thrumming. She approached it cautiously, unsure of its danger. The possibility that the explosion had shredded Sabre into a bloody smear kept thrusting itself at her, but she refused to believe it. Something of him must remain. A mere explosion could not destroy the armour on his bones.

  Only electricity could melt barrinium, not neosin, which he had described as relatively safe, unable to kill except in concentrated amounts. There had to be something left of him, and she could not give up until she found the proof that he was dead. She wondered why the sword hummed. It appeared to be using its power for something, but what? She scanned the swirling chaos, but the madness made her eyes hurt, and she looked away. A flash caught her attention, and she glanced at the sword, which had turned to crystal again. It whined, then chimed and reverted to metal.

  Sabre twisted in the terrifying nothingness, and now he could not breathe. The searing cold of absolute zero burnt his skin with its frigid touch, and his lungs craved air that he could not inhale. The cyber's hum rose to a startling, painful pitch, making him want to clap his hands over his ears to block it out, but he knew it would do no good. The infuriating whine rose higher and higher, piercing his skull with excruciating needles of sound, and pain washed through him in a red tide.

  Time started to run backwards. He sensed its reversal like a fish senses a change in the current. His hair stood on end, and his mind cried out for sanity. The cyber's hum shot beyond his hearing and blessed silence clamped down, which proved to be as uncomfortable as the whine, for it seemed as if he had been struck deaf. Sabre closed his eyes to block out the whirling insanity and flailed for purchase, but found nothing to grip.

  It reminded him of the sensory deprivation tank, but then he had sensed the water, and spent his time swirling the liquid to obtain a semblance of sensation for his starved brain. Now there was truly nothing, and stars sparkled in his brain as he ran out of oxygen. Time ran backwards, wiping away the pain of his injuries, but suffocation would kill him soon. He could no longer sense the cyber's vibrations, and a veil of darkness clouded his mind.

  Tassin frowned at the sword, which flashed and turned to crystal a
gain, its hum rising to a painful pitch. It chimed, and she wondered if it was somehow still engaged in some sort of battle with Sabre. His absence could not be explained any other way. She had searched the area where he had been thoroughly, and where he might have been flung. He had vanished, and the sword was embroiled in some sort of struggle, she was sure. It could only be fighting him. She stepped towards it, then bent and plugged her ears as the weapon's whine shot up to a painful pitch, making her head buzz and her eyes water.

  The sword's golden glow brightened to an unbearable incandescence, forcing her to shut her eyes and turn away. The whine rose higher, then silence fell, and she unplugged her ears, covering her eyes instead while she strained to catch some sound in the leaden stillness. A crack of shattering crystal made Tassin open her eyes. The sword had reverted to metal, and glowed softly, its hum returned to a deep, audible tone.

  Tassin glanced around at a slight, unidentifiable sound. The air parted and Sabre fell through only a few metres away, just as the Core's ghouls had done. He hit the ground hard, his hands clamped over his ears, his eyes screwed shut and his face twisted with pain. He writhed, curled in a ball, his skin glistening with moisture. She cried his name and ran towards him, then stopped, staring. The brow band blazed electric blue, and an inaudible vibration frizzed the air and made her scalp prickle. She glanced back at the sword, then at Sabre, realisation dawning. The Core and the cyber were locked in combat, and the cyber appeared to be winning.