The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core

by T C Southwell

  A gentle shaking woke her, and she opened her eyes.

  Sabre stood beside the cart. "Something's coming. Get up."

  Brushing tangled hair from her face, she sat up, wincing at her first sight of the smearing worlds. Sabre checked her laser's charge.

  "Only a half charge left," he muttered. "My laser's gone, and the sonlar too."

  "What about the big power packs?"

  He shook his head. "They won't fit the hand weapons. We're out of ammo." The ground shivered, making him stagger. "Get the others onto the cart. Let's try to move out of its way. Maybe it's just heading in this direction."

  Tassin bundled Dena onto the cart with Sabre and Purr and tugged the reluctant donkeys forward.

  After half an hour, Sabre said, "It's following us."

  The familiar sensation of cold dread coiled in Tassin's stomach, and she glanced back. "What is it?"

  "I don't know, but it's big."

  Purr sniffed the air and growled, "Skifgar."

  Sabre eyed him. "What's that?"

  "Big creature. Very dangerous. One of the Core's worst creations, and one of its favourites. We've moved away from the Core, more monsters live here."

  A few minutes later, crashing came from the Flux-reality behind them, and the donkeys broke into a trot, their ears laid back. Tassin ran next to them, urging them on. The skifgar caught up at an alarming rate, unimpeded, it seemed, by the chaos. The things that loomed out of the bedlam buffeted Tassin, slowing her down. A thud from behind was followed by an angry hiss as the beast ran into something solid.

  Sabre sat up and took aim as a creature burst from the swirling Flux-reality. Even though he had seen many of the Core's mutations, he was not prepared for the apparition that blundered out of the bedlam. A fierce head topped a sinuous neck bristling with short spines. Dull grey hide covered the prominent bones of a knobbly, weirdly jointed and proportioned torso. Luminous red eyes glared in a dished, equine face with flared nostrils and long, translucent teeth that dripped saliva. At the base of its neck, two thin arms ended in clawed, skeletal hands with three fingers and two thumbs.

  Below these, a second set of arms, as sinuous as its neck, ended in scythe-like horn blades. Beneath its chest, a pair of slender legs with forward-bending knees had four-toed feet tipped with long claws. The stout hind legs' powerful muscles supported long pasterns that terminated in another pair of larger four-clawed feet. A long tail lashed behind it, as bony as the neck, and tipped, like the second set of arms, with a blade of bone or horn. Its skin looked thick and tough. Bony ridges protected its eyes, and a curved plate of bone – an overgrown sternum – shielded its heart and lungs. According to the cyber's information, it was a trendil, found on a harsh rim planet that had been colonised and abandoned many decades ago after a prolonged and bloody war. Trendils appeared to be designed with just one thing in mind, to be efficient killers.

  Sabre aimed at its head and fired, but the beast moved fast, its neck and head weaving from side to side. Lowering his sights, he shot it in the chest, wounded it slightly and made it hiss. He fired again, and the monster stumbled, hissing again. Its eyes gleamed with intelligence, but its maddened intellect seemed to know only a lust to kill. When he fired again, the laser's beam died, and Sabre tossed it aside. Pulling out his knife, he jumped down, stumbling as his knees threatened to buckle. Purr leapt after him with a huge sneeze, and Tassin dragged the donkeys to a halt, crying out in dismay. Dena tried to tug one of the big laser cannons free, her face twisted with effort and terror.

  Tassin drew her dagger and ran back. The trendil stopped, dark red blood oozing from the laser wounds. Its head weaved from side to side, red eyes gleaming. Purr, a bundle of spines, claws and fangs, sprang at it, only to be caught by the second set of arms and flung aside with a disdainful flick. The alien was intent on Sabre, awaiting his next move. The cyber knew he was in no shape to fight such a dangerous beast. Trendils were formidable creatures, and had ousted humans from their planet through sheer dint of brawn and cunning intelligence. He stepped sideways, and the monster turned to face him, its blade arms making slow, anticipatory motions. The hand arms remained tucked close to its neck, out of harm's way.

  The beast's head was far out of reach, making its armoured body his only target. Sabre dropped into a forward roll, hoping to come up under its chest. The creature stepped back too fast, however, and Sabre lacked his usual speed and co-ordination. The monster's head swung down, and its blade arms sliced towards him. Tassin shouted and ran forward, hurling the dagger. It struck the creature on the snout, and it reared back, blood oozing from a shallow wound. Its red eyes assessed her potential as an opponent, and Sabre slipped out of reach while it was distracted.

  Tassin retreated, to Sabre's relief. At least she seemed to have enough sense to stay away, for a change. He circled the monster, keeping its attention while avoiding the occasional swipes of its blade arms. He did not have the strength to fight a trendil. His bio status was a mere thirty-seven per cent, dangerously low, but there was no other option. It hissed, and slurred words whispered in his mind as the cyber tried to interpret its language. Tassin ran back with the humming sword, and he shot her an incredulous glance.

  He shouted, "No! Tassin! Look out!"

  One of the trendil's blade arms lashed out, wrapped around her waist and lifted her. Tassin screamed and threw the sword. Sabre advanced, fear chilling his heart. The blade arm tightened, crushing her to the skifgar's neck, the knobs digging into her. The sword fell in a flashing arc, and Sabre leapt forward to catch it, then almost dropped it. The Core thrummed with malevolence, and he longed to cast it away. Its angry power sickened him, but he needed a weapon.

  Sabre leapt at the skifgar, thrusting the blade into the creature's neck. The sword sliced into its tough flesh, and blood splattered over him. It hissed, and its head swooped at him, mouth open. He slashed at it, the weapon bouncing off bony armour. He was too weak, and what strength he had was fading fast. As the skifgar recoiled, Sabre held the sword before him. It glowed with a rainbow nimbus, humming with power and hatred.

  "If I die, you rot," he promised it, remembering Tassin's recipe for the Core's co-operation.

  The blade chimed and flashed, turning to crystal. Sabre slashed at the monster's head as it lunged at him again, leaping over a blade arm that swept past at knee level. The sword unleashed a flash of golden power that lanced through the creature's head in an explosion of blood and brains. The headless corpse lurched and collapsed. Sabre tried to fling himself aside, but again his strength failed him, and the corpse hammered him to the ground. Vaguely he was aware of a blinding white flare, then he went rigid as searing agony lanced up his arm.

  The world darkened and Tassin screamed, a thin, distant sound. Tingles washed through him in waves, accompanied by a sickening sensation of weightlessness. Hatred and triumph radiated from the sword, and he flung it away. The tingling shocks and weightlessness vanished. He landed on hard ground with a thud, momentarily stunned. The situation's urgency beat at his brain through the mists of confusion and disorientation that clouded it.

  Shaking his head, he levered himself to his feet and glanced around at a glowing yellow tunnel. The skifgar's corpse lay nearby, Tassin in its clasp. He staggered to her and freed her from the alien's grip. She was unconscious, but appeared to be unharmed.

  Sabre dragged her to the side of the tunnel and propped her against the wall, glancing around again as he squatted beside her. A few gentle slaps made her gasp and open her eyes, which widened. She grabbed his arm, and Sabre tried to fend her off, but she transferred her grip to his neck and hung on.

  He patted her back. "It's okay. We don't seem to be in any danger, and if we were, you're not helping."

  "Where are we?"

  "I haven't the foggiest idea. At a guess, I'd say we're on the trendil – skifgar's home world."

  "How did we get here?" Her voice shook, muffled against his neck.

  "The sword, of course." He glanc
ed down when she pulled back to look up at him. "It transported us here. Just as it snatched the skifgar from this world, it cast us into it."

  "Why?"

  "Revenge." He sighed. "That always was its greatest wish. Vengeance against mankind, and now that I've reduced it to its present state, it wants me dead more than anyone. You should have left it there. You should never have kept your side of the bargain. That thing is evil. That's why I didn't want to touch it again. I'd already had too much contact with it when it was still the crystal, when we were bound together with neosin.

  "Its hatred is immense and its depravity horrible. It didn't have nearly as much power as it had as the crystal, but I think it controlled the skifgar, lured it to us and made it attack me. It waited until we were in contact with the skifgar, then used the catapult effect to throw us back into the skifgar's world."

  Tassin's eyes roved around the glowing tunnel. "What's a catapult effect?"

  Sabre eased his aching back, allowing her to hold his wrist, since he knew she needed the tactile comfort of his presence. "It's the attachment every creature the Core snatched has with its native world. It took immense power to pull them from their worlds into ours, but not very much to send them back. That's why the sword waited until we were in contact with the skifgar before using its power. It used the skifgar like a homing beacon, catapulting it back to its world, and taking us with it."

  Tassin shivered, although the tunnel was warm. "Where's the sword?"

  "Good question. It forced me to release it, but I think it's also in this world somewhere. The catapult effect is powerful. I doubt it had the power to stay behind."

  "Well I'm glad it's gone."

  Sabre shook his head. "Don't be. This isn't a pleasant world, and its inhabitants certainly aren't, which is probably why the sword sent us here. It's our only hope of getting back. We have to find it."

  "What if it's not here?"

  "Then we're screwed."

  Tassin gasped, her eyes widening. "Dena!"

  "Purr's with her. He'll take care of her until we can get back."

  "What if we can't get back?"

  Sabre groaned. "What if... what if... We'll just have to find that damned sword, okay? But right now I think we should find somewhere safe to rest."

  Tassin glanced up and down the tunnel and nodded, brushing back a lock of hair. Sabre consulted the scanners, which showed many points of pale mauve light. Trendils. The corpse did not register on the scanners anymore. A structural analysis revealed a network of interlinking tunnels, some passing close to each other. They appeared to be in a hive, surrounded by trendils.

  Keeping an eye on the scanners, Sabre led the way down the tunnel, Tassin clinging to his hand. The yellow glow came from a sticky coating on the roof, jelly-like and unpleasant to touch. Sabre steered away from the trendils on the scanners, entering a downward sloping tunnel. The structural analysis showed an empty cavern ahead, and they entered a bizarre garden. Yellow slime threw a warm glow onto an amazing variety of fungi.

  A pool at one end glinted mysterious black, and he wound his way through the growths to sample the clear water. While Tassin drank, he examined the fungus garden. There was an occasional recognisable mushroom variety, but most were alien, with odd colours and weird shapes. Hunger reminded him of his need to regain his strength, and he asked the cyber to analyse the fungi. It indicated that several varieties were edible, and he tasted some. Tassin looked alarmed when he munched on a bilious orange growth.

  "What if that's poison?" she demanded.

  "It's not. Try some."

  She shook her head, rubbed water on her face and smoothed back her hair. "I'm not hungry."

  Sabre settled beside the pool, eating a pale blue mushroom. "You will be, and I doubt there's anything more appetising than this down here."

  "How are we going to get out?"

  "We're not. We're going to find that bloody sword."

  "But there could be more of those monsters down here."

  He nodded. "There are. Plenty of them."

  "Then we must get out of here. We must get to the surface."

  "And then?"

  "I don't know. Find help!"

  "This is a rim world called Narrin Three, the only planet that trendils, or skifgars, inhabit. It was abandoned about fifty years ago, so I don't really know what's on the surface. It never was a very nice world, and the surface might be more dangerous than down here. In fact, I would guess it is."

  "Why?"

  Sabre threw away the pale blue fungus, which was so pithy his tongue seemed to have turned into a mohair rug. "Because skifgars live down here, and they're pretty formidable. There's only one real reason to live underground, in a hive like this, and that's protection."

  "There might be people up there. Perhaps that's who the skifgars are hiding from."

  He shook his head, plucking a knobbly yellow fungus. "No. Like I said, this world was abandoned. The settlers couldn't share it with such a dangerous creature. Forget the surface. If we want to get home, we have to find the sword."

  Tassin looked crestfallen, but nodded. "Can you find it with the scanners?"

  "Unfortunately not. The scanners only detect living creatures."

  "Then how will we find it?"

  He shrugged, popped the last bit of yellow fungus into his mouth and reached for a grey one. "Search."

  "That could take ages!" She scowled. "How can you eat that stuff?"

  He nibbled the grey fungus. "It's quite tasty."

  "It looks revolting."

  Sabre shrugged. "Cybers are conditioned to eat anything edible and nutritious. I've eaten worse than this. I need my strength if we're going to get out of here alive. Try some."

  She shuddered, shaking her head. "Even if we find the sword, how will we make it take us back?"

  "I'm not sure. I think it brought us here for two reasons. One is so the skifgar will kill us, especially me, and the other is to find creatures to care for it, ones it can control, perhaps even regain its previous power. It must have selected this world carefully before it made the skifgar attack us. Since its main motivation is self-preservation, perhaps it can be blackmailed."

  "How?"

  Sabre finished the grey fungus. "By threatening to destroy it."

  "Do you think you could?"

  "I'll certainly give it a bloody good try."

  Tassin closed her eyes and rubbed her brow, drooping with weariness. Sabre's fatigue was profound, compounded by his weakness after his battle with the Core. He led her to a niche and settled down as comfortably as he could on the hard ground. The spicy scent of the fungus surrounded them as Tassin curled up beside him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The cyber's red warning flashes woke Sabre, and he shook Tassin. Two life forms approached the cave and entered it. Sabre froze, pinning Tassin to the wall to prevent her from moving. The skifgars were smaller than the one he had fought, with shorter necks, larger heads and no blade arms. They had more powerful hand arms than the warrior skifgar, and were armed only with a short blade on the end of their tails. They started to fill the panniers on their backs with fungi.

  The workers hissed at each other while they toiled, and a garbled translation whispered in Sabre's mind. He could understand a word here and there, from which he deduced that they discussed the fungi and the state of the garden cave. Myon Two had only partly translated trendil speech, but the cyber would fill in the missing data as it accumulated more information. Sabre relaxed, patting Tassin's hand, which gripped his hard enough to cut off his circulation. Her proximity made him a little uncomfortable, but the dangerous situation distracted him.

  The workers wound through the clumps of fungi, harvesting the largest until their panniers were full. As they returned to the cave entrance, one glanced up and hissed a comment about the lighting. Sabre noticed that the yellow glow was dimmer than before, and he wondered what they would do about it. The second worker merely hissed an agreement as they left.


  Tassin relaxed her death grip on his hand, and he massaged the blood back into it, shifting away as he became acutely aware of her pressed against him. He rose and stretched, refreshed by the rest and food, a little of his strength seeping back. His bio status was forty-two per cent, still dangerously low. Ambling down to the pool, he slaked his thirst and ate more fungus. Tassin joined him, sipping water while she eyed him.

  "What are we going to do now?"

  "Eat."

  "What about finding the sword?"

  Sabre munched a grey fungus, which was the best tasting; a rather bland, earthy flavour. "Not yet. I'm not strong enough. We'll rest here until I am."

  "What about Dena?"

  "Purr will take care of her, and she has food and water. She'll be okay."

  Tassin scowled. "What about me?"

  "What about you?"

  "I'm hungry too."

  "Then eat." He held out a piece of fungus, which she eyed with distaste.

  "I can't eat that. I'll be sick."

  "No you won't. It's not bad, and it's all there is. You also need your strength, so don't be silly."

  He pressed the damp morsel into her hand, and she nibbled on it, her face twisted with disgust. "It tastes like dirt."

  "Really? When have you ever tasted dirt?"

  She glared at him. "You know what I mean."

  "Just eat it. Try some of the others if you like."

  Sabre watched with amusement as she sampled all the fungi he had eaten, spitting out the pale blue mushroom, which he knew had a tart, hairy taste. Her mood improved when her hunger was assuaged, and they returned to the side of the cavern to rest. As soon as they had settled down, the cyber flashed a warning.

  A life form approached the cave, and he said, "Hush. Something's coming."

  "What?"

  "I don't know. Not a skifgar."

  "We should get out of here."

  "No, we'll be safer here. It's too close. Just sit still."

  Sabre waited for the creature to enter, and at first he could not see it, even though the scanners told him it was already inside, then he looked up. A two-metre long, bright yellow slug crept across the ceiling, its suction foot rippling. Its eye stalks and feelers waved, and red-tipped protrusions dangled from its flat body. It left a trail of glowing yellow slime. Sabre smiled and pointed, drawing Tassin's eyes to it. She started, then relaxed.