The Cyber Chronicles 06: Warrior Breed

by T C Southwell

  "Azrin and bentazine, like you said I should."

  "Maybe he's allergic."

  Tisha experienced a twinge of alarm. "If he dies they'll examine the corpse and find the drugs. They'll know what we did. Killing a commander carries the death penalty."

  "Maybe I can persuade Atrel to dispose of his body and his servants and pretend nothing ever happened."

  "Atrel will never do that. You know he's fiercely honourable and traditional."

  "This is a damned outsider!"

  Tisha shook her head. "That won't matter. Atrel lost his command to him. He'll investigate this, and he won't be lenient when he finds out what we've done. I was his spouse before you; I know him."

  Diarda cursed, glancing around as if seeking the answer in the shadows. "We didn't intend to kill him. It was an accident."

  "Then you'd better call Atrel now, before the commander dies. That way he'll know we tried to save him. He knows about this, right?"

  "I told him I'd ask you to seduce him, but not about using drugs. I just hinted at that."

  "Well, it's not our fault he's allergic, but if we don't try to save him, it will be."

  Diarda swore again and went to the com-link, calling the bridge. Atrel arrived within minutes, looking tired and cross. His frown deepened when he spotted Sabre.

  "What's going on?"

  "Tisha tried to seduce him, like we discussed. We used a couple of harmless drugs, and this happened," Diarda explained

  Atrel cursed and went to Sabre's side to place a finger on the side of his neck. "Fools. He's not dead, but... What were you thinking, using drugs?"

  "I thought they would help, that's all. I wasn't to know -"

  "You didn't think Tisha could seduce him without them?"

  "I didn't want to take any chances."

  "Right, well now you've really messed up, haven't you?" Atrel ran a hand over his hair. "I'll call the medics."

  Diarda grabbed his arm when he headed for the com-link. "Why don't we just let him die? You'll be commander again. No one need ever know."

  "The crew will know. Don't be a fool."

  "If you call the medics, they'll know what we tried to do."

  "There's no law against seducing a man, although the drugs weren't a good idea. He'll decide your punishment if he survives. If he doesn't, it was an accident, but if we let him die it's murder." He tapped the sickbay’s number into com-link’s keypad, glaring at Diarda, then glanced at Tisha. "Go and fetch his servants. They know him better than we do; perhaps they'll know what to do."

  "I'm not dressed!"

  "Then get dressed, and hurry."

  Tisha pouted and donned her clothes, leaving as two warrior medics hurried in. Atrel gestured at Sabre, and they set down their bags and examined him, asking questions that Atrel answered. One cracked a vial of scent stimulant under Sabre's nose, with no effect.

  "He's unconscious, First Lieutenant, but otherwise he appears to be healthy."

  "Why is he unconscious?"

  The medic shrugged. "I don't know."

  Diarda gasped as Tarl thrust her aside and shoved one of the medics out of the way to reach Sabre. Kernan stopped in the doorway behind Tassin, who gazed at Sabre with deep dismay.

  "How dare you push me, non-com?" Diarda demanded, glaring at Tarl, who ignored her.

  Atrel shot her a frown. "Shut up."

  Tassin tore her eyes from Sabre to glower at Diarda. "What did you do to him? If you've harmed him -"

  "What?" Diarda swung around. "What will you do, midget bitch?"

  "Shut the hell up, both of you," Tarl said. "He's okay, Tassin."

  "So why won't he wake up?"

  "I'm not sure yet, but if I can have some quiet, I'll try to figure it out." Tarl sat beside Sabre and studied the brow band. "Two of his bio alert lights are on. He's been drugged. What happened?"

  Atrel cleared his throat, embarrassed. "It seems that Tisha wanted to... become his spouse."

  "She tried to seduce him?"

  "Yes."

  "He'd have kicked her arse, so she drugged him? What did she use?" Tarl asked.

  "An aphrodisiac, and a hallucinogenic designed to induce confusion and submission."

  "Sounds like phloromine and pendril." Tarl stood up. "He'll be all right, but we'd like to be left alone with him."

  Chapter Ten

  Atrel eyed Tarl, then nodded and signalled to the others to leave. The medics filed out, Tisha pouted and Diarda shot Tassin a killing look as she walked past. When the door closed behind the Trykons, Tassin took Tarl’s place beside Sabre and stroked his brow. Kernan settled on one of the chairs in the sitting area, which surrounded a low, glass-topped chrome table. Tarl sighed, rubbing his neck, and sat on the end of the bed.

  "Well, those idiots have blundered into a sensitive area of cyber psychology, that's for sure."

  Tassin glanced at him. "I'll kill that damned woman. How dare she?"

  "Oh, they dare. Trykon women -"

  "Spare me the details. How do we wake him up?"

  "We don't," Tarl said.

  "Why is he like this?"

  "He's been drugged. Cybers aren’t immune to aphrodisiacs or hallucinogenics. Neither will work on a real cyber, since the host brain isn’t in charge."

  She frowned. "Is a hallucinogenic supposed to have this effect?"

  "No. It's complicated."

  "Simplify it."

  Tarl gazed at the cyber. "I think he was in a situation he didn't want to be in, but the drugs prevented him from resisting her. His wish to avoid that overpowered his mind with stress, and poof, he opted out.”

  "That's not very complicated."

  "Well, there's a lot more to it than that."

  "Explain it."

  Tarl sighed, shaking his head. "To do that, I'd have to explain a lot of other things about him."

  "Good."

  He glanced at Kernan, then shrugged. "What the hell. I guess you have a right to know. First of all, he’s not meant to be in charge, and the fact that he is opens a whole barrel of worms. He's had to make a lot of adjustments since he's been freed, and he's come a long way. I've noticed the changes in the time I've been with him. I hate to lay blame, but it's partly your fault."

  She raised her brows. "Why?"

  "You've been getting him accustomed to physical contact, I've noticed. Holding his hand, hugs, little gestures of affection, perhaps a little more than that?"

  "A little."

  "All the cyber’s training is stored in his brain, so, in effect, he’s been trained and conditioned, and a big part of that is to regard uninvited contact as a possible threat. You've been undoing that, which, in the context of your relationship, is a good thing, but it stripped him of one of his primary reflexive defences, so she was able to drug him. The poor sod was completely conflicted, I reckon. His human side wasn’t averse to it, while his conditioning, and the cyber, told him it was unacceptable. He's a killing machine, not a lover."

  "Don't call him that," she said.

  "Sorry, but it's true."

  "You still haven't explained why he fainted."

  "Haven't I? I thought I had. He didn’t faint; he’s not the fainting sort. It’s hard to explain so you’ll understand it, because you have no idea what goes on in a cyber host’s brain. He would have been curious, confused and tripping on the drugs, while the cyber would have been bombarding him with all sorts of warnings, analyses and conditioned responses. It must have been like a bloody circus in there. It sure would have put a dampener on things.”

  He coughed and smiled. “Anyway, he couldn't handle it, so he checked out. I think he’s retained the ability to do a sort of mental shutdown to escape untenable, but unavoidable situations, and it’s probably a legacy of cyber control. He’s done it before, when Ravian made him step out of the airlock, and I’m guessing that wasn’t the first time. When he was under cyber control, he couldn’t escape completely, but it must have buffered him from reality. Now, it’s a complete withdrawal.
" He sighed. "Look, I know you want him to be human, but he’s still a weapon, and at least part of him still thinks like a weapon."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Think about it." He picked up Sabre's hand and spread his fingers. "He can tear metal and crush stone with this. He can crush a man's skull like a rotten fruit. He has reflexes even he doesn't know about. Certain triggers can evoke a violent, involuntary response. "

  "He'd never hurt me. He didn’t even hurt that wretched woman."

  "That might have been due to the drugs. He’s got a lot of combat programming to circumvent before he can even begin to be normal, and that’s going to put him into conflict with the cyber, which is what happened earlier, I think. Take my advice, let him set the pace. Give him time to adjust to all the complexities of being human. "

  "He is human."

  "He still has a lot to learn about it, though." Tarl put Sabre's hand down. "I mean, until you freed him, he had no concept of how to show affection. It was unknown to him."

  "It’s known to him now."

  "Just don't rush it."

  Sabre's eyes opened. "You're just brimming with bloody advice, aren't you, Tarl?"

  Tassin started, and Tarl recoiled as Sabre sat up. He gripped the front of Tarl's shirt and lifted him to his feet as he stood up, then pushed him against the wall, forcing the air from ex-technician's lungs in a coughing grunt. Tarl gripped Sabre's hands as they closed around his throat.

  Sabre thrust his face close to Tarl's. "I'm not a bloody machine, and I don't need you interfering in my life."

  Tassin jumped up. "Sabre, stop it!"

  Sabre tilted his head. "Am I hurting you, Tarl?"

  "No."

  "Why is that, do you suppose?"

  "You don't want to?"

  "Oh, I want to, but why should I? I can do this..." Sabre drew back a fist and punched it through the wall beside Tarl's head with a terrific bang that made the cyber tech jump. "But does that mean I'll do it to your skull?"

  "No."

  Tassin gripped Sabre's arm and tugged on it. "Let him go."

  Sabre released Tarl and stepped back, glaring at him. "I've just about had enough of your horseshit explanations."

  "I know more about you than you do."

  "You think so, huh? Maybe you do, but that doesn't give you the right to tell everyone."

  "Tassin has a right to know."

  Sabre nodded. "And I'll tell her, when necessary. I've already explained half of what you did."

  "How much did you hear?"

  "More than enough."

  "I didn't tell her anything that wasn't true."

  "Yeah, you did. You said I'd hurt her, and that's never going to happen, but I might hurt you."

  Tarl looked wary. "How do you feel?"

  "Like shit, and thoroughly pissed off."

  "I can tell."

  "Stay the hell out of my private life, got it?"

  Tarl nodded. "Yeah."

  Tassin took hold of Sabre's hand. "I'm glad you're all right, and you didn't... you know."

  Sabre glared at Tarl and Kernan. "You two, piss off."

  Kernan rose and left, followed by Tarl. As the door slid shut, Sabre sank down on the bed again, rubbing his face with his free hand, and Tassin sat beside him.

  "Are you all right?"

  "Yeah, fine."

  "Look at me, then."

  He shook his head. "I'd actually like to be alone."

  "No, I don't think you should be. Talk to me."

  "You're the last person I want to talk to right now."

  "Why?"

  "Come on, Tassin, have a heart."

  She tried to pry his hand away from his face. "You didn't do anything wrong."

  He tugged his other hand from hers and used it to cover the rest of his face, bowing his head. "Please leave."

  "No. I'm partly to blame for what happened to you."

  "I should have shoved Tarl's head through the wall."

  "Why?"

  "Because helping me to become more human isn't a bad thing, and you shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it."

  Tassin gave up tugging at his hands and sighed. "But perhaps I should have waited until we got back to Omega Five."

  "No. I'm fine. I learnt an important lesson about trusting unarmed females, so perhaps it was a good thing."

  "Why did you trust her?"

  "I sensed no danger. She must have had a mini-injector in her hand, and it contained drugs the cyber doesn’t consider harmful, so the scanners didn’t identify it as a threat. "

  "So... what happened?"

  He rubbed his face, then ran his fingers through his hair and scowled at the floor. "Nothing. I need a shower."

  Sabre rose and headed for the door, glimpsing her forlorn expression but unable to meet her eyes. Guilt and shame filled him, and he needed to be alone to deal with it. In the corridor, he found Tarl and Kernan hanging about, and gave Tarl a shove that sent him crashing into the wall with a grunt of surprise. Sabre longed to vent the pent-up frustration and ire that plagued him, but Tarl was probably not the ideal target, annoying though he was.

  While Sabre stood in the hot shower in his own quarters, letting the running water soothe him, he thought about what had happened. The Trykon woman had taken away the control he had fought so hard for, and which Tassin had gone through so much to help him achieve, and that had angered him. The episode had been strange and disturbing, and had roused unpleasant feelings he had no wish to experience, yet was now forced to endure. His anger towards Tarl had been the strongest he had ever experienced, even though much of what he had said was true. Sabre had woken when Tarl had touched his hand, and listened with growing horror to the ex-tech’s spiel about crushing skulls and involuntary reflexes. Tassin’s faith in him warmed his heart and made his love for her grow stronger, but he was somewhat amazed that she still loved him after listening to that.

  Then again, he really had no idea why she loved him in the first place, and he still could not shake the deep seated knowledge that the feelings he had for her were wrong, and forbidden. In spite of this, keeping her love and ensuring her safety were his main missions in life now. Broken killing machines, however, were not supposed to fall in love with girls. They were not supposed to have feelings at all, and he was developing more and more of them. He had no idea how to deal with them, and did not want to, yet situations kept cropping up that forced him to, and increased the tug-of-war in his mind between his human side and the cyber’s programming.

  When he emerged from the bathroom, clad in his combat clothes, which he had put through the auto washer while he showered, Tassin was sitting on his bed. Sabre looked away, throwing the towel he had been using to dry his hair on a chair.

  Tassin patted the bed beside her. "Come here."

  He eyed her hand. "What for?"

  "Does it matter? Are you afraid to be near me now?"

  "No."

  "If you're feeling guilty, don't. That woman is to blame. You had nothing to do with it. You were the victim."

  He snorted, a bitter smile curving his lips. "It's not what she did that makes me feel guilty."

  "It's because you wanted to let her seduce you."

  He glanced at her in surprise. "That doesn't make you angry?"

  "No. Flesh is weak, but you were strong enough to foil her. I'm proud of you." She patted the bed again. "Come, sit and talk to me."

  He obeyed. "What do you want to talk about?"

  She slid closer. "How do you plan to punish that woman?"

  "Tisha? Trykon law has no punishment for seduction, any more than ours does."

  "She drugged you."

  "Yes. For that she could get twenty lashes."

  "Do that, but also make her your spouse."

  "What?" He glanced at her in surprise, raising his brows.

  "I don't mean that you should consummate it."

  "Oh... good. So why? To humiliate her?"

  "And Diarda. She'll lose her rank a
s commander of the women, won't she?"

  "Yes, unless she challenges Tisha, but she knows I don't like her, so she wouldn't."

  "How does it work?"

  He ran a hand over his damp hair. "A Trykon woman chooses a man she likes, and if he likes her, they become a couple. There's no marriage ceremony, it's just an understanding. They announce it, and it's done. If another woman likes the same man, she can fight for him, and if she wins, she gets him, provided he accepts her. It works the other way too, although, if a Trykon man wins a woman, she doesn't have much of a chance of beating him in combat. But Trykon women are formidable, so she'd probably make his life miserable, I would imagine." He glanced at her. "That's all I know."

  Tassin smiled. "Of course, you only know what they taught the cyber."

  He nodded. "So... you want revenge on Tisha, and twenty lashes aren’t enough?"

  She shook her head. "I'm not that petty. I think there's something else going on. I sense intrigue, and I'm pretty good at finding it. Once Tisha’s your spouse she has to do as you say, doesn't she?"

  "No."

  "No?"

  "Not unless I make her."

  "Could you do that?" she asked.

  "You want me to beat up a woman?"

  "Just make her tell you what Diarda's planning."

  "What makes you think Diarda's planning anything?"

  "I just do. She hates your being commander of this ship, and I think she's hatching a scheme to get rid of you."

  "Then she's playing with fire,” Sabre said. “Any attempt to kill me would be treason, and she could pay for it with her life."

  "There has to be a reason for Tisha to try to seduce you."

  "You don't think it was because she wanted to be commander of the women?"

  "No. She's not the sort."

  "And you don't think it was because she found me irresistible?" He shot her a smile, unable to resist the quip.

  She returned it. "I'm sure she did, but I still think there's more to it than that. Diarda's up to something, I just know it."

  Sabre considered. "If you're right, it won't be easy to make Tisha tell me her plans. Trykon women are tough."

  "Have you ever tried to frighten someone?"

  He shook his head. "No. Not really."