by Mark Lingane
“A female one? That would be a first.”
“Maybe not. If there was word of a tesla in town and the cyborgs were presented with one, would they stop looking?”
“You think there might have been another one?”
Parker nodded. “I know there was another one. An older one.”
41
THE CYBORGS LIFTED Kerry off her feet. She was dragged, kicking, out of the city into the plains. A small cubicle had been assembled and several cyborgs worked tirelessly in the hot sun, adding various bits of machinery to the inside and out.
A door to the cubicle opened and a cyborg wrapped in a tight white dress stepped out. A thick red line ran from her neckline down to the hem of the dress, which ended halfway up her thigh, and another ran across her bust, creating a large red cross. She looked like she was wearing long white gloves, but as she came closer Kerry saw that her arms and hands were mechanical. Her hair was tied back in a severe ponytail.
Kerry’s face went crimson as she spluttered her contempt at the inadequate costume, which accentuated the cyborg nurse’s overly feminine shape.
The cyborg raised her hand and grasped Kerry’s face. Her fingers clamped down like a vise, causing Kerry’s face to puff out. The nurse raised her other hand and plunged a large chrome needle into Kerry’s eye. She pressed down on the plunger then released her grip. She watched Kerry carefully.
Kerry let out a bloodcurdling scream and dropped to her knees. The eye enlarged and popped out of the eye socket, still attached.
“Sedated. You will tell us what we want to know,” said the cyborg nurse.
Kerry’s vision swam and she swayed like she was intoxicated. She cradled her eye until her arms were yanked to her side. She tried to resist but it was futile. The medication was seizing her body and she struggled in vain to move anything. Other cyborgs lifted her off the ground and carried her into the cubicle, which was a dark cell, with the nurse following.
The door was closed and darkness closed in around Kerry. A high-pitched buzzing started to her left. A dark red glow illuminated the room, and the nurse loomed over her. The cyborg face was flawless. The skin was pale and smooth, ageless yet youthful and serene, distracted yet vile and cruel.
“Am I in hell?” Kerry whimpered.
“We ask the same question of ourselves when we see you,” the nurse replied. Her ponytail shifted and a camera arose out of the stands. It revolved around her head and positioned itself in front of her eye. The red glow in the camera brightened as it zoomed in.
“Why did you do that to my eye?”
“It’s the easiest and quickest way into the brain. We drill through and inject the information-gathering serum. You will tell us what we want to know. Afterward, we give you a new eye. A much better one.” She nodded in agreement with herself.
The nurse raised a large steel knife and cut through the nerves and muscles attached to the eye. The eyeball fell to the floor. A chrome drill descended from the room and started to buzz ferociously, disappearing into the eye socket.
Kerry howled in pain and an invisible impulse rolled out of her. The nurse froze, blinked, and then collapsed.
The wave rolled out over the other cyborgs, who all convulsed and collapsed.
All except Isabelle, who merely stumbled. The mechanics attached to her failed and she lurched to the side. She fell to her knees on the ground, still trying to walk. The circuitry on her back went dark, and she collapsed completely. She rolled over and stared at the sky. She was the only moving cyborg within close proximity.
And then she had an independent thought, about a little boy.
42
“I CAME BACK via New Toowoomba,” Colonel Parker told Nikola. “They’ve established an assimilation factory there, in the central station. Generally it’s a big prison but …” His voice trailed off.
“What?”
“From what I overheard, and it’s a difficult dialect to come to grips with, they’re waiting for something to happen. They’ve got a power device, but it can’t work until something happens at the Academy. Do you think it could be related to Omega?”
“That’s always been the point,” Nikola said. “We’ve never really known. We live in a world where we barely understand what we see, and I think that’s even more relevant for the cyborgs. We survive because we go with the flow of life, working with what we know. Cyborgs survive because they fight against life. Control is beyond their understanding.” Birds wheeled above and swooped off over the trees.
“So if Omega changes sides, flips over, will it be to their advantage?”
Nikola nodded. “From what I’ve been able to gather. I think they think Omega represents ultimate power, and if it can be coaxed over to their side or even forcibly switched, they’ll have enough power to control all the assimilated cyborgs. Until they get that power, the assimilated ones still revolt.”
“So, once again, war is about power.”
“Isn’t it always? The Academy was built out of power, and the importance of balancing and respecting it. The real power of the Academy lies, or lay, in its collective knowledge. It’ll endure beyond everything as long as there’s a willing mind to be open and hungry.”
Nikola watched the others down on the plain, who were messing around and generally just being teenagers—eighty percent fumbling embarrassment and thirty percent claims of deliberate action. Which added up to more than one hundred percent, but their hormones often ratcheted them up into overdrive. They played, they laughed, and they learned.
Nikola thought about the cyborg, who was changing rapidly with the release of her mind and becoming less of a machine and more of a person. And there was Melanie, shouting at them all to behave and being totally ignored until she hit one of them.
These youngsters were the future, Nikola reflected. Once they got back home, to the city, he would make it so. Assuming the city was still there.
“How is the city?” he asked Parker.
“Barnes has set up a solid defense. No one knows the old passages like him and his men. Frankly, he seems to be enjoying the guerilla warfare.”
“And Omega?”
“Still strong. There’s a defensive ring around it, and, well, you know what’s inside.”
Nikola was visibly relieved. “But if they find a way to convince Omega to change sides we’re all done for.”
Parker nodded toward the plain. “We don’t want the others to know that, though,” he said, “especially the kid.”
“Definitely not. I still don’t know if he’s more dangerous to us only or the cyborgs as well. I need to think about it.”
Parker hesitated. “There’s more news, and it’s bad. Isabelle’s returned from the Hive and is at the Academy.” Nikola looked at him. “She’s one of them now.”
Nikola bit down hard on his lower lip.
“You want to tell the kid about that?”
“He must never find out,” Nikola said. “If Sebastian ends up going back to the Academy and reversing Omega, which she could convince him to do, well, you know the rest.”
“I think she’s waiting for him.”
“That’s bad. We need to get rid of her before he returns.”
Isaac was running around bouncing off the side of a gleaming vehicle near the cave entrance.
“You’d better go rescue it,” Nikola said.
“Whoa. What is it?” Isaac asked as Parker approached. He and the others were standing around the vehicle Parker had arrived in.
“Ultra steam reconnaissance vehicle, uSRV for short,” Parker said. He had stripped off most of his weaponry, and peeled off his sweat-soaked top and thrown it against the window of the uSRV. His muscles flexed and glistened in the sun. His body was still in top condition despite his age. He was tanned, but his chest hair was graying, along with the hair on his temples.
“It’s got the biggest wheels I’ve ever seen,” Sebastian said.
“Makes you feel like you’re tumbling along.” Parker did a bounci
ng motion with his hand.
“Then Tumbling or Tumbler or something like that would’ve been a better name,” Isaac said.
“It’s something Albert whipped up in his applied sciences division.” Parker pointed out the various advanced weaponry. “It’s got heat-tracking rocket launchers. Grenade catapult. Flame thrower. Gun-machines that follow your eye movement. Special glass that lets you see at night.” He slapped his hand against the shiny surface and the vehicle echoed.
He looked over at Melanie, who still had her Gatling gun on. “That looks a bit big for you. I’ve got a spare second-generation one here. Try it on.” He opened up the back, extracted a twin Gatling combination from the interior wall and handed it to her.
She swung it over her arms and strapped the pack around her waist. The arm attachments hung loosely by her side. She slipped her forearms into the cylinder attachments and swung the gun around with ease. “Wow, it’s really light.”
“Check out your hands.”
She rotated her arms. Her hands were fully visible.
“Albert was muttering something about opening doors,” Parker said.
Melanie laughed. She slipped on her targeting patch and fired a quick round at a low-flying crow. It was a direct hit. She smiled. “Is Albert all right?” she asked Parker. “The last we saw of him was when the fourth floor of the administration building exploded.”
“My access was limited. When I got back there were cyborgs everywhere. I thought if he were alive he’d be in the cells. I got down to them using the old drainage passages.”
“What’s that?
“It was an old sewerage system, built into the original foundations of the city.”
“Eww.”
“It hasn’t been used in centuries,” Nikola told her, “but no one knows that except Parker and me.”
“When I found out you weren’t there,” Parker said to Nikola, who had joined them, “I did a quick recce of the cells to see who they’d caught and thought worthy of keeping alive. There’s some sort of weird truce going on between the cys and the mayor’s guard, the one that new woman signed up from those reprobates from the plains. I overheard some of the new guards talking about various people, but your name never came up, which was odd, you being commander.”
“Such is the usual fate of an unsuccessful leader.”
“Anyway, they were talking about ‘some crazy science guy,’ which I figured to be Albert,” Parker said. “They were complaining about not being able to get anything out of him. The cells were full, which surprised me. They’ve got a lot of good people down there. Alive. In chains, but alive. Barnes is doing some excellent work in freeing them when he can. They’re getting together a large group in the caves under the city.”
“Could we lead a revolution or an insurgence against the cys?” Melanie asked him.
Parker shook his head. “Too many of them. They’re everywhere. The city’s like an ant colony.”
“Any idea who the queen is?”
He glanced at Sebastian, who was listening intently. “I don’t think you’d like the answer.”
“Would it surprise me?” she said.
The colonel shook his head.
Parker still hadn’t answered Melanie’s question and Sebastian couldn’t contain himself any longer. “But did you find Albert? Was he okay?”
“Yeah. He had a special cell. I think it was a cell. It looked very comfortable with a fridge and a sofa. He was inside and the cys were on the outside. He was sort of locked in, although the locks were on the inside.” He tapped the side of his nose and gave them all a big smile.
“What does that mean?” Isaac asked.
“It means he’s going to be safe,” Nikola said. “Albert would be a very important man to the cyborgs. He knows about electromagnetic science, which makes him both useful and dangerous to them. It would surprise me if he didn’t have a totally insane survival plan. And one that involved being directly under their noses would be twice as sweet for him.”
Both men laughed.
“Colonel, get back and see if you can help Albert,” Nikola said. “When we strike back we’re going to need some serious support from the inside.”
Parker got up and saluted his commander. He jumped up into the uSRV and paused before pulling down the gull-wing door. “Commander, keep safe, we need you back in the city,” he said and slammed the door into place.
The steam in the engine compressed and thrust the vehicle forward over the rough terrain. Within seconds it was nothing but a diminishing dust cloud.
“We could have used him and all those great toys,” Isaac said. “I’m definitely getting one of those metal skeletons when this is all over.”
Melanie ran her hand over the new stack of bullets. She lifted her hand and smelled the oil from the casings. It made her smile. There were difficult times ahead, but a whole boatload of bullets gave her a glimmer of hope.
43
NIKOLA WENT GRAY. His eyes rolled back and he folded to the ground. His head cracked on a large rock, causing blood to spurt out over the sandy ground.
@summer ran over and knelt down beside him. She quickly wrapped a bandage around his head and scanned her device over his prone form, with it uttering a collection of disturbing sounds. “He has radiation poisoning. He is sick.sick.”
“How do we cure that?” Isaac said.
@summer shook her head. “You can’t. We’ve never found a way.”
Melanie kicked a rock. “I refuse to believe that. We need to get him help.”
“Out here?” Isaac said.
Sebastian clicked his fingers. “My mom was sick, like Nikola. She was cured by the desert walkers.”
Sebastian clambered to the top of the highest point he could find. He took out a small piece of wood attached to a long rope. He put a twist in the rope and started to swing it in a large circle around his head. The low hum increased in volume, in synchronization with the velocity and twist of the blade. He stood twirling the bullroarer around, feeding out the rope then pulling it back in, and the modulating sounded echoed over the landscape.
He sat down with the binoculars and scanned the horizon. Time passed and he kept his vigilant outlook until he noted a distant plume of smoke. He set up his own small pile of wet twigs, and then focused the sun through the bottom of a broken bottle onto the twigs until they started to smoke. He blew into the twigs until a small flame flourished into life. Smoke billowed up and he continued to fan the flames.
He looked up into the sky and watched the dark smoke drift away. It was the best he could do other than setting a full-blown bushfire. He kicked out the fire and ran back down to the cave.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Melanie asked.
“I lived in a small town with no means of communication other than horses. We had to pick up ideas where we found them.”
Sebastian waved to the two small, dark figures walking through the distant mirage caused by the extreme heat. There was no response. He waited for what felt like an eternity until he could make out their faces.
The two men approached the cave, carrying nothing but a small bag between them. Their brown bodies looked painfully thin against the great horizon. Their bare feet kicked up the loose sand. They slowed as they approached, the dead cyborgs visibly disturbing them.
Sebastian was tapping out a repetitive rhythm on a pair of sticks. The two Aborigines glanced over to him, but continued toward Melanie.
“You sent for help?” Gilly said.
Melanie looked around uncertainly at the others.
Sebastian stepped up behind her. “They’re a matriarchy. The women are the ones who do the important talking,” he whispered.
Melanie smiled. “Sense at last.” She cleared her throat. “We have much sick traveling companion. We travel long way. Chased by bad man.”
“They’re not foreigners,” Sebastian continued to whisper. “Just talk normally.”
“I’ve been told you can cure this kind of sickne
ss,” she said. “Can you help us?”
“Who’s crook?” Gilly asked.
“Sick,” translated Sebastian.
Melanie indicated Nikola, lying in the cool of the cave.
Gilly walked over, dropped his bag, knelt down and examined Nikola. He took out some herbs and various pieces of ancient medical equipment. Then he noticed the weapons. He noticed the scars. He looked up at Melanie.
“We only help those who live by healing and walkabout, those who touch the land lightly. You’s don’t look like healers or gentle travelers with all your guns and weapons and flashy vehicles. And you’ve left a real mess with those dead fellas.”
“No. No! We’re defenders,” she protested.
“You ever thought of hiding?”
“We’re more … active defenders.”
“What are you doing? You’re looking like an idiot with all the strange hand gestures,” Sebastian whispered.
“Sorry, we don’t help those who cause the fighting,” said Gilly.
“But you helped my mother,” shouted Sebastian.
Gilly turned and stared at the young boy. “I don’t know you, kid. You seem nice enough. I assume you’s the one who called. If you know the corroboree, with the welcome rhythm, you should know who we can and can’t help.”
“My mother taught them to me. She’s the one you saved. Please, you must help. Her name was Isabelle.”
Gilly shook his head. The second Aborigine, Aaron, made a motion to leave.
“You found her in a ditch, north of Talinga, sick like Nikola, and you nursed her back to health.”
Gilly paused in packing up his things, but didn’t look up.
“It must’ve taken you months. You can’t forget something like that.”
Gilly looked up into Sebastian’s imploring eyes. He finished packing his sack, stood up and threw it over his shoulder. He gave them a nod and the two dark men started to trek off into the great wilderness.