Cyber-Knife II: Lady Cyber-Knife

by Phil Wrede

  CHAPTER 10

  THE MINDSCAPE OF LADY CYBER-KNIFE THE PRESENT Lady Cyber-Knife's vision winked out temporarily as the connection between hers and Cyber-Knife's minds was completed. She didn't just lose her eyesight, though, but all of her senses, and for long, terrifying seconds, she felt like a disembodied mind, floating in a neverending void, alone and creeping ever closer to terror. She knew that nothing had changed, that her body occupied exactly the same space as it had before, but with how closely connected her physical and digital realities were, she found it more difficult to tamp down her fear than she had at first expected. Even though she didn't need to breathe, she noticed that there was no air in this digital void, and felt her lungs caving in on themselves as they struggled to suck down air that wasn't there. None of her self-preservation modifications or programming kicked in to prevent her instinctive responses; her skin grew cold and damp, even her arms and legs, where there was no flesh at all; her eyes bulged out, as though they were threatening to leap out of her skull; her throat closed up, just like her lungs had, and her tongue swelled up in her mouth. Somehow, she was drowning and asphyxiating at the same time, and it was as though she was watching it happen from outside her own body. She'd never felt like this before, and the feelings stretched on for so long that she began to wonder if she would ever feel anything else ever again. Just as she began to abandon hope, a world flashed into being around her. Her senses all returned in the same moment, overloading her mind and body. Where she had been floating in a void, she fell to hard ground an instant later, her right shoulder and hip momentarily throbbing from the impact. Lady Cyber-Knife opened her eyes after the pain decreased to a dull roar from its original primal scream, and felt slightly underwhelmed by what she saw. The landscape, while rolling and even sweeping, was largely featureless; black, with evenly spaced green lines cutting across it at precise, ninety degree intersections. She pushed herself to her feet, and saw Cyber-Knife striding over to her, his beard gone, leaving the soft dimple on his otherwise powerful chin visible, and his hair styled to fall softly around his collarbone. “Don't ever let them say that vanity is a trait you lack,” she said, allowing herself to appreciate how totally his black jumpsuit hugged the firmly muscled curves of his body. “You can be whatever you want in this realm,” Cyber-Knife replied, “so why not choose to be your best self? I promise you that what stands in opposition to us will exploit every advantage it can find. We need to do the same.” “The way you look makes you better assured of victory in this place?" Lady Cyber-Knife asked. “It's true everywhere else, I suppose, so I don't know why I imagined my own mind would be any different.” “Where we are now is your mind, true enough,” Cyber-Knife said, “but rather like the outskirts. The cybernetic parts, the digital components, the deeper we probe into them, the further away we get from anything you control. It's more something you can access, rather than what you actually control.” “Read-only,” Lady Cyber-Knife summed up. “Effectively,” he said, “but since it's actually in your mind, designed to deploy code or hack through your defenses entirely, we'll be best served by eliminating what's there completely. If you don't cut it all out, or at least tear it up so badly that it can't function, then you only allow it time to regroup, or regenerate. That's not a recipe I'd like to try.” “Which means... what, exactly?” Lady Cyber-Knife asked. “If we cannot kill it, let alone slow it down, does this not just delay the inevitable? Will the Complex not find us, or kill us, rendering our entire exercise moot?” “You focus on the destination, at the expense of the journey,” Cyber-Knife answered. “The longer I go without taking action, the more and more I feel I betray everyone. All of my people, living or dead.” “Just remember: it's a good sight better than going and getting yourself killed, or turning a general into a martyr because you spouted off early and knocked him off too soon.” Cyber-Knife thought for a few long seconds. “What people?” “Everyone like us,” Lady Cyber-Knife clarified. “We may be the last of the unstoppable cybernetic super-soldiers, but not the only ones. There have to be some mistakes they made along the line, failed models. But, everyone they sacrificed to they can maintain their standard of living, as well. Everyone that the Complex and the White Zone have bulldozed and stepped on to get where they are today. All of those people are my people; our people.” “You must feel crushed under your guilt,” Cyber-Knife said. “This is a very new realization,” Lady Cyber-Knife admitted. “When you thrash about helplessly in a shapeless body floating in a formless void, your mind comes to some pretty stark realizations. It is not enough to escape, or to cut out every trace of the Complex from my mind. I intend to go back and avenge myself upon them. What they do, it cannot stand, nor be forgiven.” Cyber-Knife firmly placed his hand of flesh on Lady Cyber-Knife's shoulder, in a gesture of friendship and support. “First,” he said, “we'll free your mind. Then, we'll get our revenge.” She placed her hand atop his, giving it the gentlest squeeze that she was able. “Even if we do not get all my knowledge back, we will still burn that place to the ground, and poison the ground below, so that nothing grows there ever again.” “Let me let you in on a little secret,” Cyber-Knife said, “it's already poisoned. Nothing can grow there, or nothing of benefit to life, anyway. That's why they have to strip bare every world they can find. The White Zone couldn't support ten people, let alone ten billion.” Lady Cyber-Knife dropped her hand away. “Knowing that does little to let me work out my frustrations,” she said. Cyber-Knife nodded, and turned his gaze over the digital frontier sprawled out in front of them. “Enough fighting awaits us just over this ridge to slake your anger for a good long time,” he said, nodding confidently. “And, how do you know that?” Lady Cyber-Knife asked. “The geography of your mind is much like my own," he explained. “It doesn't surprise me that they sought to cut costs and corners anywhere they could, but I am impressed that they sought to gamble on recreating the very thing that made you such a threat to them.” “No one accused the Complex of taking the long view with much success,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “You say a fight awaits us over this hill? Let's go get into a scrap.” As she stomped off, the force of her footprints leaving little divots in the land beneath their feet, bending the lines that crisscrossed the landscape slightly downward, at least before they reformed, Cyber-Knife strode after her, waving his hand in a friendly gesture he didn't imagine she could see. “Wait,” he began to say, “you need to understand how this realm works! There are rules here that are different from any other world you have ever visited.” “A battle is a battle,” Lady Cyber-Knife said, turning her head over her shoulder to address his concern as she pressed on ahead. “The enemy can die here, or at least suffer defeat, yes? I need no lessons on that!” “Yes, but they are not so overmatched here as they have been in battles so far,” Cyber-Knife said. “Though this is your mind, this is their realm. They have taken steps to weaken your mental potency and build a thousand different backdoors to reach the inner workings of your mind. Their tricks and traps are strong enough to catapult you from your very own consciousness, or even to break your reality entirely. The world around you could end tomorrow, or even today, if they feel particularly ungenerous. “Did you lose your breath when you transitioned from the physical realm into this one? Did you feel yourself choking, even though you don't need to breathe?” he asked. “Yes,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. Cyber-Knife cocked his hip forward as he rested one hand on Lady Cyber-Knife's shoulder, and the other on a broadsword at his hip which she was pretty certain hadn't been there a second ago. “I don't need to teach you how to fight,” he said. “We've learned the same lessons; we know the same things. The only thing I have to teach you is what I was taught by the Taykinh: now that your mind is free from their influence, it's free. You're free to make yourself, and the world around you, into what you want it to be. The only way they can defeat you now is if you allow them to.” “Then, what are we doing here?” Lady Cyber-Knife asked. “Think of it as a final exam,” Cyber-Knife offered, “of demonstrating your abilities. Yo
u have the same archives that I do, so read up on the stories people once told about training for marathons, or to climb mountains, or completing an academic dissertation. You've trained, and you've prepared. You know you can do it. Now, you prove it.” “Did you do something like this, after they freed your mind?” Lady Cyber-Knife asked. “I blew up an ARN facility on a parallel Earth, and then tried to do the same to a Complex skyscraper back in the White Zone,” he replied. “I suspect we'll be more successful together than I was alone.” Lady Cyber-Knife looked over the horizon, then back to Cyber-Knife, putting her hand on top of his. “Afterwards,” she said, “I want to blow something up for real.” “You have yourself a deal,” Cyber-Knife said. He smiled, and although it didn't look natural at first, or even comfortable, his muscles eventually settled. For the first time in his entire storied existence, he looked comfortable, even at ease. It didn't come as a surprise to him, in the back of his mind, that this moment would come to him just as he was about to rush into battle against overwhelming odds, and the most difficult security protocols the Complex could stack in his way. Yet, he wasn't concerned. He knew that, between the two of them, they could overcome every obstacle. They were the two greatest killers in any world, he knew, and any problem could be solved by throwing enough bodies at its feet. Lady Cyber-Knife took the lead up the digital incline in front of them, receding from his eyes. It seemed to grow steeper the further they walked; he noticed her feet split apart and dig into the virtual ground below, taking one long, deliberate step after another. This was Cyber-Knife's first clue that the task before them might be more difficult than he had at first believed. His solution to the problem was to increase his pace, pumping his arms from side to side as he rushed up the hill. He passed Lady Cyber-Knife, and reached the crest of the slope just before she did. What they saw below astounded them. A great army stretched out across the valley before them, a mass thousands of warriors wide and deep. Each one looked identical to the ones surrounding it: faceless, bipedal, but utterly without definition, like a basic form from which a a detailed carving would be made. Brilliant and green against the blackness, they looked as though they could easily be a vast crop awaiting harvest. The front half hefted blades in their hands, sometimes one, sometimes two, in a grand variety of styles from across time. The ones in the rear held guns, again, an infinite variety of them, in infinite combination. Though they had no features, both Cyber-Knife and Lady Cyber-Knife could see the fury in their posture. They had been programmed to carry out a single mission: to be the final line of defense against a hack of this magnitude. They would not yield; they would only stand, or fall. “I really can make the world into whatever I want it to be?” Lady Cyber-Knife asked, leaning on her back foot as she stood over the peak of the hill, which had honestly become more of a mountain they longer they had climbed it. “You have to believe that you can, to assert it with confidence and your whole heart. No reservations,” Cyber-Knife said, his opaque black gaze so firmly focused on her that she could feel it, even without looking at him. “If you can do that, you can do anything, first in this place, and then everywhere.” “And, so can they,” she said, an eyebrow cocked in one last grab at disbelief. “What can I say? Worlds are complicated, no matter if they're irradiated jungle hellscapes, soulless urban nightmares, or virtual dystopian hellscapes,” Cyber-Knife said. “At least there's a balance to the scales of power in this place. The stronger you get, the weaker they become, until their grip on you is lost entirely.” “Belief, and action, together.” “Yes,” Cyber-Knife answered. Lady Cyber-Knife reached down towards her thighs, where there had been nothing except her legs a second ago, and withdrew from empty air two enormous swords, each easily a foot longer than she herself was tall, and wider again than the distance between her shoulders. It took no effort at all for her to balance these new weapons above the arc of the hill. Cyber-Knife looked from her swords to his own, which now looked puny in comparison. “Compensating for something?” he asked with a crooked smile on his face. “No,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. She took a step down the side of the hill, moving slowly at first, but immediately picking up speed. “It was just a joke,” Cyber-Knife shouted after her, as he began to run, himself. “It was not funny,” she replied, not even breaking her stride to look over her shoulder. Lady Cyber-Knife pushed off with her back foot, and felt the artificial gravity of this wholly imagined place give way beneath her. She soared through the air, a bird on a wire, spinning like a top, and going faster and faster. She flew in an arc over the heads of the drones, a few of whom stopped and stared up at her as she drifted through the air, and landed right in the middle of the horde. She swung her arms over her head and brought them down to the ground, the oversized broadswords in her hands cutting through more than twenty of her foes with that single stroke. She pivoted to strike in the other direction, and the swords transformed with her movement, becoming glaives which she could use to pierce their bodies like so many green balloons. She stabbed into one, and tore it in half as she yanked her sword upwards, bits of green programming code leaking from the wound before evaporating into the air. She did it to another, and another, and another, and another still, all while avoiding strikes from enemies that continued to eagerly surround her. Two drones attacked her from behind, simultaneously, sweeping their swords with tips less than an inch apart right towards her neck. Lady Cyber-Knife ducked underneath and spun, and her weapons changed shape again, becoming hooked swords. She caught the drones' blades with the curved edges of her own weapons and pulled down, throwing them off balance, before ripping one apart at the waist, and cutting the head off the other. She looked over the horde to see Cyber-Knife sweeping away great batches of drones by the scores and dozens, his single sword twisting, engorging, and shrinking around him as he whipped it through the air. He moved incredibly fast, at a speed that not even his enhanced muscles would have allowed in the real world. The sword's blade widened like a fan as he swung it across the drones, pushing them aside, their protestations as ineffective against him as leaves against a rake. Then his weapon snapped back to its normal size, and he cut apart the ones who were trying to sneak up on him with furious overhead swings. The way he fought gave Lady Cyber-Knife an idea, and she brought her two weapons together, making them one, and shaping a scythe from what had been two blades just a moment before. She drew her arms back to wind up a mighty swing and leapt forward, bringing the blade of the scythe across her path and severing the bodies of at least a hundred just above their waists. She took another great jump and swung the scythe around her in a perfect, unbroken arc, annihilating twice again as many and forming a circle of digital carnage around herself, which drifted up into the air and disappeared in an instant. “This is not so bad,” Lady Cyber-Knife remarked, in the quiet moment she'd won herself. “Labor-intensive, to be certain, but -” Her thought was cut off by an awful electronic scream, a waveform pattern that she and Cyber-Knife both knew had been perfectly modulated to disrupt the smooth, hybrid functioning of their organic and mechanical components. They dropped to their knees immediately, and the resolution of the digital realm around them dipped with a terrific violence: smooth, rounded edges turned sharp and square, and everything shuddered into stacks of blocks and triangles, precariously balanced and waiting to tip over at a second's notice. “W... Why?” was all Lady Cyber-Knife could muster the energy to shout. “The... network,” Cyber-Knife struggled to explain. “We receive... as well as... send... when... we're... connected.” Sweat ran down his brow in rivers from the unmatched effort he had to put forth, just to string that one sentence together. For a glorious instant, the scream abated, and even though they knew they didn't need to, both Cyber-Knife and Lady Cyber-Knife lay gasping on the ground, their hands desperate to massage their pained minds. It started up again a second later, louder and angrier again this time, and they curled into tight balls to beat back the pain a second time. “You... mean,” Lady Cyber-Knife fought to spit out each word, “you... lied!?” “Never!” was all Cyber-Knife could m
anage in reply. From the back of the seemingly infinite drone swarm that had begun to converge on them again, an enormous and dark green shape rose up. Drones had begun piling atop one another, standing on shoulders, clamoring over bodies, and their forms had begun to merge with one another's, forming a great and mighty, if undefined, beastly shape that shook the ground underneath as it stepped. It towered all of them, by dozens of feet and, presumably, hundreds of pounds. It had no head, just an oversized torso, with thick limbs jutting out of it. Its skin cascaded from black to green as it walked forward, absorbing nearby drones into its bulk and inflating itself ever further. Lady Cyber-Knife was the first to stagger to her feet, forcing herself to overcome the debilitating effects of the monster's roar, which seemed to pulse out ever louder with each crash of its terrible feet. “Then,” she growled through her clenched teeth. “This. Is. Impossible.” The drones nearby surrounded them, perfectly positioned to stop them from retreating, or going anywhere, but the physicalized bits of computer code didn't advance themselves, except to reinforce their makeshift cell. Cyber-Knife had only managed to support himself on his hands and knees by the time Lady Cyber-Knife had struggled to stand. If anything, the effect of being overpowered in this realm was hitting him even harder than her, so accustomed he'd become to being the invincible, omnipotent master of the virtual world. “Fight,” he gasped, his hair matted to his face in wet curls. “Stop them here.” Lady Cyber-Knife wobbled on unsteady legs as she reached down to lift her scythe from the ground. As her fingers wrapped around the shaft, the weapon transformed from a long, single blade into a hefty, double-bladed battle axe. She looked up to the ur-drone, and now saw before her just an enormous tree, waiting to be felled. It bent down at her, its faceless body aimed precisely at her, and roared louder than ever before. Clutching her axe against her chest, Lady Cyber-Knife roared back, her spine straightening as she finally stood. She sprang off the ground again, her legs carrying her above the drones that had been closing in. She wound up, ready to hack away at the giant with every ounce of her strength, but she had misjudged the angle of her attack. It swatted her away, just as she might have a troublesome insect. The ground roiled and deformed beneath her as she flew into it, absolutely unable to control her speed. The black and green bunched up behind her like excess fabric before it reasserted its shape and flattened out again. Lady Cyber-Knife tried to push herself back to her feet once more, battling against the mental exhaustion of the conflict, but she couldn't move fast enough. The great amalgamated beast let loose with a roar louder than any other noise it had made so far, and raised its mighty foot above Cyber-Knife, who had himself not been able to muster the energy to stand, either. Lady Cyber-Knife didn't know what would happen to Cyber-Knife if the monster smashed him - she hadn't thought to ask how their physical bodies reacted to what happened in the virtual world. She didn't want to wait to find out, though. As the great and terrible thing brought its foot down, Lady Cyber-Knife felt time slow around her, so afraid and focused she had become. She didn't even fully stand before leaping through the air again, nor did she notice that the axe in her hands nearly quintupled in size in the moments between her feet leaving the ground, and when she slashed into the monster's back, cutting it from shoulder to shoulder, and spilling bright green binary code from the wound like blood, which dissolved into the air within an instant. It rocked back on its stumpy heels, waving its fists in the air in thick ovals, roaring with such fury that tremors shook the ground, toppling all of the nearby drones like so many bowling pins. Although its screams hit a volume louder than any it had previously reached, the monster had lost its aim, or at least its focus, and Cyber-Knife was finally able to struggle to his feet as the beat threw an enraged, pained temper tantrum. Amidst the ruckus, Cyber-Knife managed to pull up a long, thin blade from the center of his hand and stab it upwards into the underside of the beast's foot, puncturing its skin and digging through its body until the point emerged again just below its knee. It bellowed again, not quite as loud this time, and reflexively brought its foot down on top of him and stamping him into the ground. Cyber-Knife vanished underneath its foot without a chance even to make a sound. His weapon followed suit a moment later. Lady Cyber-Knife didn't know what had happened, and she had no interest in waiting any longer than she had to find out. She stared down at her axe and made it double in size once again, scaling it up to such a degree that even her perfectly toned and enhanced physique wouldn't have been able to hold it upright. Nevertheless, she lifted it above her head, the blade easily looming one hundred feet in the air. She didn't have to run, jump, or even take a single step before splitting the beast cleanly and exactly down the middle. It withdrew its foot from atop Cyber-Knife, who looked none the worse for wear. Its two halves wobbled separately in the air for a moment; its scream raised into a register higher than it had ever hit before. It drew back upon itself and healed its wound instantly, soaring into the air like a tidal wave before reforming behind her, seemingly twice as big again. As it took great, earth-shaking steps upon her, Lady Cyber-Knife couldn't believe she was fighting another unwinnable battle again, so soon after recognizing the futility of the first. She'd been created to hunt, and wage war, but her experiences had been deliberately limited by the Complex. There was more than she knew, so much more, and perhaps all she had to do was stretch beyond those limits to accomplish things which had seemed impossible before. “Stop!” Lady Cyber-Knife shouted, converting her axe into tremendous inflatable hands - balloons that towered so high, their fingertips reached above even the head of the digital monster - with spinning red warning lights floating in their palms. She waved them angrily in the beast’s face, blocking it from advancing any further on herself or Cyber-Knife. “If we cannot win a victory, perhaps we can achieve a peace!” The hastily-assembled giant had already wound up a great swipe of its paws as she spoke, and couldn’t stop itself from following through on its attack. The terrific claws, any one of which could have made either her or him vanish in its shadow, tore through the balloons, opening up long, narrow seams in the latex. As the balloons deflated high above her, Lady Cyber-Knife couldn’t help herself from grinning just a little as the air squeaked while it leaked; the detail in the simulation impressed her. The monster knelt down in front of her, its great fists causing the landscape to ripple and quake as they pounded the ground, one at a time. It kept leaning down, this motion taking so long that Lady Cyber-Knife wondered if it would ever end, until it finally got its face so close to her that she could feel its breath on her face, hot and dry, like that blown by a fan. It huffed a few times, strong enough that she began to wonder if she needed to dig into the ground with her feet. “Go on,” it finally said, in ten thousand unified voices, a noise so bassy that it was naturally musical. “You are a part of my mind,” Lady Cyber-Knife explained. “I cannot destroy you. You cannot defeat us, not really. We will return, again and again, even if you eject us from this place. I need everything you have locked away from me to be accessible. What do you want?” “‘...Want?’” the beast asked, giving life to a thought it had never before considered. “You have a form,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “It may only be in this place, but you have one. All forms have desires. What are yours?” When the creature folded its body up in confusion, she tried to prompt it. “You want to continue, do you not? The fear of death is what unites most living things, in the end.” “Continue, yes,” it said. “We wish to continue, to be in this place.” “This place is my mind,” she replied. “We have to come to an understanding if you like it here. You have been hiding things from me, keeping me locked out of my own mind. That stops, here and now. Serve me, and I will happily host you. Refuse, and I will obliterate you, grinding the bits of data from which you sprang into nothingness. You will not only cease to exist, but it will be as if you never did, in the first place.” The enormous guardian form looked into Lady Cyber-Knife's eyes with its own recessed caverns, its surface constantly flexing and shifting. “Deal,” it finally said. “We serve our host.
” “Thank heaven,” she said, stepping backwards as Cyber-Knife got to his feet. “I do not want to be trapped in the recesses of my own mind for the rest of eternity.” The giant looked around, appreciating the quiet of the empty digital battlefield, staring for a moment at Cyber-Knife, then back intently to Lady Cyber-Knife. “Leave here any time,” he said. “How?” she replied. “With all that knowledge you have yet to share with me?” Things he knows, you know,” the giant said, its ten thousand voices calm and encouraging. “Just reach it, access it.” It pointed over Lady Cyber-Knife's shoulder, behind her, and as she turned, a great rumbling shook out from beneath their feet. Within seconds, a tower had erupted from the ground, probing toward the sky, stretching further and further until it finally had extended its full length. “I have not seen this before," Lady Cyber-Knife said, arching her back to look up at it. “No, but I have,” Cyber-Knife said, “and what's in my mind is now in yours.” “What is it?” “It's where I learned that everything I thought I knew to be true from my experiences was completely and utterly wrong,” he said. “But, I already know that,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “I learned it a lot faster than you did.” “Yeah, but we're all suckers for symbolism,” Cyber-Knife said. “One good human trait within you,” the giant observed. “Scale it, open the tome, and unlock everything.” “'Tome?'” Lady Cyber-Knife asked. “Symbolism,” Cyber-Knife said. She smiled. “Right.” Lady Cyber-Knife entered the tower, and began up its stairs. EARTH-3911 Lady Cyber-Knife awoke back in the cave of bones, with Cyber-Knife and even Excalibur staring intently at her. “How do you feel?” Cyber-Knife asked. “Whole,” she replied, after deliberately searching her mind for the proper word. “Then, let's get the fuck out of here,” Cyber-Knife said, smiling. “We have a long journey ahead of us, back home... Though, first,” he gestured to her face, “can you explain that?” he asked. “Your look?” Lady Cyber-Knife felt almost self-conscious at the question, a sensation she’d not encountered before. People rarely commented on her appearance directly. What people thought of her, she gleaned from body language, intonation, furtive glances, and the like. Her late friends had never made any observations about her “look” at all, and she preferred not to dwell on the things Dinesh said about her. Even with all the knowledge now accessible to her, she didn’t quite know how to answer this. “Do you mean, my face?” she finally replied. Cyber-Knife looked regretful instantly. “I only mean, that’s not the Complex’s usual aesthetic. In... building a woman, I can’t imagine Dinesh or Maximilian opting to favor function over form.” “Oh, no,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “They gave me a human face originally, with warm skin, a blush response, and everything.” “And yet, you heal just like I do, so this isn’t an egregious injury.” Lady Cyber-Knife took a breath in spite of herself. Involuntary behaviors were not easy to unlearn. “They made me look like them, in part, so that I would identify with them, and more willingly do their bidding. I reject their control. I reject the mask they made me wear. I am not human, neither their object, nor their subject. I refuse to pretend otherwise.” She pulled her hair back from her face and twisted it around her hand three times. When she let it go, it stayed exactly in place. Not even a hair moved. “I apologize,” she said. “I had the thought before, but not the way to express it.” “That knowledge is a gift,” Cyber-Knife agreed. “At times, a burden, too, but more frequently, a gift.” “I have not had this much history and literature accessible to me for nearly as long as you,” Lady Cyber-Knife said, getting to her knees, “so please, tell me, have many people wanted to lay waste to their home, when they learned its foundation was made of lies?” “You have no idea,” Cyber-Knife said, probing at the ceiling for an escape route. “And you lack imagination,” Lady Cyber-Knife replied, reaching out with her hand and pushing apart the bones stacked above them with a single thought, making a tunnel back to the surface and letting the light in again. Soon, if it all went well, they'd be bringing plenty of light, to a place that didn't even know it needed it.