The Cyber Chronicles IX - Precipice (25 page)

The wind tugged
at Tassin, and he crawled faster. It seemed as if Shadow Hawk's
entire atmosphere was venting through the hole down the corridor.
Tassin rolled into the wall, cracking her head against it, and then
slid away. Another dead soldier rolled past. Sabre cursed, his
heart racing with terror as he lunged after the Queen. His hand
closed on her arm, and he hung on, his other hand scrabbling for
purchase. Tassin opened her eyes and raised her head to stare at
him. The wind sucked the air from her lungs, and she panted, her
eyes filled with terror.

"Sabre!" It was
a breathy cry, full of fear and gladness.

"I've got you,"
he said, his fingers finding purchase on a carpet brace.

Tassin glanced
around, her eyes white ringed, and Sabre struggled to pull her
closer. She seemed to weigh a tonne, but that was due to his
strength draining away from lack of oxygen. Her lips were blue and
her eyes glassy. His heart rate was up to two hundred and forty,
but hers could not go that fast, nor could her lungs extract as
much oxygen as his. It surprised him that she was conscious. She
was limp, barely awake. He dragged her closer, his lungs labouring
and a red haze clouding his vision.

"Listen to me,"
he wheezed. "I'm going to throw you into the pod."

"What...
about... you?" she gasped.

"I'll be right
behind you."

She nodded.

Sabre glanced
back at the pod, dismayed by how far he was from it now. It had
detected the low pressure atmosphere, and beeped in alarm, red
lights flashing inside it. It would not close, however, as long as
it was empty. He pulled Tassin to his side, shifted his grip to her
waist and held her to him. Rolling onto his back, he sought for
grip with his heels. He needed two arms for this. His boots slid
down the carpet and encountered another brace, one of the many
strips of metal that ran across the corridor. The wind was
strengthening. He was not going to make it. He thrust the thought
aside. Releasing his grip on the carpet brace, he clasped Tassin's
waist and glanced at the pod, measuring the distance to it.
According to the malfunctioning gravity, it was above him. His
throw would have to be accurate, or she would bounce off and
die.

Information
scrolled through his mind, flashing red. The cyber calculated the
amount of force it would take to hurl Tassin into the pod, and the
strength he would have to use was excessive. She would be hurt.
There was no other solution. No way out. He would have to hurt her
to save her. The thought horrified him. He frowned down at her. He
had no choice. Her eyes were half open, watching him, a slight,
trusting smile curving her lips. He hated hurting people, but
hurting her was something he had always dreaded.

"Tassin." He
almost had to shout, the atmosphere was so thin, and was not sure
she would hear him. Her eyes widened slightly, however. He was
running out of time.

"This is going
to hurt," he said.

She shook her
head, her brow wrinkling in confusion.

Sabre pulled
her closer. "I'm going to hurt you... I'm sorry."

Understanding
dawned in her eyes, and she shook her head again. He was not sure
what that meant, but it did not matter anymore. He would not live
to regret this, and it had to be done.

Sabre commanded
the control unit to release an energy burst. Warm strength rushed
through him as adrenalin flooded his system. He lowered Tassin in
front of him. It was a good thing she only weighed fifty-two
kilograms. His eyes were fixed upon the pod's round entrance, no
more than a metre wide. A small target from this distance. He must
not miss. Lowering Tassin a bit further, he hurled her at the pod
door. Her lower ribs broke with dull crunches, and she gave a
strangled cry. His boots slipped off the floor brace, and he slid
down the corridor.

Tassin sailed
towards the door, her hands outstretched. She passed through it,
banging her knee, and hit the padded interior at the back of the
pod. The door swung shut and rotated. The pod now had an occupant,
and its little computer brain had a mission. It unclamped, and
thrusters fired, moving it away from the ship. He glimpsed her
horrified face in the door pane, her mouth open, shouting his name.
A slight smile tugged at his lips. He had about twenty minutes to
live, if he was lucky. Sabre glanced down at the bracelet on his
wrist, and pressed it. Fairen would never get here in time, but he
deserved to know what had happened to his friend. Now that Tassin
was safe, it made no difference.

The wind was
dying, yet he still breathed air. A pocket of vented atmosphere
surrounded the ship, but it would disperse rapidly, and the cold
already bit him. The alarms had stopped, and silence clamped down.
Most of the hull in the area had disintegrated, and the void
beckoned through gaping holes. The false gravity sent him drifting
spaceward. He considered trying to grab something, but it would do
him no good to cling to the wreckage. He had not said goodbye to
her, and the last thing he had done was hurt her. Sadness flooded
him in a black tide far stronger than any emotion he had
experienced before.

It made a lump
form in his throat, and his eyes stung. He had not even told her
how much he loved her. Not well enough. Not as he wanted to. She
had been through so much for him, only for it to end like this.
Life was unfair. He looked down at his scarred hands, with which he
had hurt the girl he loved. Hands that could tear steel and crush
stone. That had broken her bones in order to save her. That was so
unfair. Stars drifted past, and the cold bit into his skin. He was
just another piece of debris, not a man... a broken killing
machine. The bitter voice awoke and howled its venom at him.
Cyborg!
This was his lot, his fate. To sacrifice himself to
save a human... and yet... he had wanted to do it. He was glad she
would live, and felt no resentment at his sacrifice. He would have
done it even if he had been a free man. Hell, he was free, albeit
not entirely a man.

It had been his
choice, and he was glad of it. He had done it because he loved her,
and that was the noblest reason of all. His corneas started to
freeze, and he closed his eyes. The control unit had increased his
metabolism to warm his skin and ward off the cold, but without
oxygen it was forced to burn protein. Yet all his high-tech
enhancements would only buy him a little more time to drift through
space with the flotsam. How droll. The cyber would inflict upon him
its final injustice and prolong his suffering. His death would be a
slow and painful one... unless he switched it off.

****

Tassin beat on
the pod's hatch pane. "Sabre!
Sabre
! Oh god, no! No! Sabre!
No, please, don't... don't do this!" She gulped and hammered on the
glass again. "Sabre!"

Hot tears
overflowed and ran down her cheeks. She had revived moments after
the pod's hatch had sealed and air had flooded into the tiny
sphere. The clunk of its closing had jerked her back to reality.
She had been alone, and remembered his strong hands on her waist,
thrusting her painfully upwards, then sailing through the air. Her
ribs sent shafts of pain through her at every breath, her knee
throbbed and her lungs burnt. He had said he would be right behind
her. She banged on the tough glass under her fists ached. She
scanned the darkness outside, rubbing away the tears that blurred
her vision. A pale form drifted in space, starlight gilding him,
curling slowly into a foetal position as the cold ate into him.
Tassin hammered on the glass.

"
Sabre
!"

Chapter Thirteen

Fairen glanced
up as Commander Shrain entered his private study and bowed. The
young Overlord held a cup of hot chicolane poised before his lips,
and he had snatched a few minutes of peace and quiet to relax. He
was sick and tired of interruptions and endless conflicts that
required his immediate attention.

He scowled.
"Unless this is urgent, go away."

The commander
hesitated. "Sorry to disturb you, My Lord. Your friend's distress
beacon has just been activated."

Fairen leapt
up, slopping the hot drink on his hand, and cursed. "What is it
now? If Myon Two are at it again, I swear, I will kill the whole
bloody lot of them."

"The beacon is
in the Estron Quadrant, My Lord. Earlier there was a call for help
from a planetary leader in the same area, but you did not wish to
be disturbed. Neither, apparently, did anyone else, and no one
answered it. The ship is still in translocation configuration."

"Translocate
then. What are you waiting for?"

"Yes, My Lord."
Shrain tapped his com-link.

Banging down
the cup, Fairen headed for the door. The stasis field clamped down
and the white light engulfed them, and he staggered a little as it
released him. Shrain hurried after him.

Fairen marched
across the vast control room, gazing at the screens, where two
battleships hung. One was breaking up, venting atmosphere, debris
and life pods in a spreading cloud. The other appeared to be moving
away, even as life pods headed towards it.

Shrain frowned
at his com-link. "It's Shadow Hawk, High King Tarvin's ship, and
Imperial, which belongs to Emperor Endrovar, My Lord. Shadow Hawk
is the damaged one. There's another ship... it's Pathos."

"Find Sabre. If
he activated the distress beacon he's in trouble."

"Yes, My
Lord."

"And capture
Imperial."

"At once, My
Lord."

****

Tassin flung
herself against the hatch pane as a vast crimson ship shimmered
into being with a flash of light, so distant that it appeared quite
small, but she knew it well. She banged on the glass, her breath
catching at the pain that shot from her broken ribs.

"Fairen! Thank
god! He's here!" She swore, glancing around the pod.

There had to be
some way of communicating with him, but she did not know how. She
tried to recall her last experience in a life pod. It had been an
old one, with only a distress beacon. Perhaps this one had a
transmitter? She studied the control panel's little screen, pushing
some of the buttons. It buzzed and clicked, and writing scrolled up
the screen. Status reports, vector co-ordinates, beacon activation.
It was all meaningless, and nothing looked like communications.

"Shit!"

Tassin banged
on the panel, making it buzz again, and red lights flashed. Sabre
was dying, and she was trapped in here, helpless. She pushed
herself back to the hatch pane, the only screen in the pod, which
fortunately faced in the right direction. Sabre still drifted not
far away, and Fairen's ship was beyond him. A green filament snaked
from it and captured Imperial.

She cursed.
"No! Forget that bastard! Save Sabre! He's over here!"

Tassin gripped
the hatch handle and rattled it, overwhelmed by an insane urge to
get out and wave her arms to attract Fairen's attention before it
was too late, or better still, grab Sabre and bring him into the
pod. The handle did not budge, no matter how hard she yanked on it,
and all she did was hurt her hands and make her ribs flame with
pain again. Anguish and despair swelled in her like a black bubble,
and she sobbed. Minutes had passed. Fairen was too late. Surely
Sabre was dead by now.

****

"Have you found
him yet?" Fairen demanded, glaring at Shrain.

"My Lord, there
are fifty cybers in the area. Forty-one in various life pods, four
on Pathos -"

"Four? Then
Sabre's not there."

"Perhaps, My
Lord."

Fairen sank
down on his onyx throne and gazed out of the screens. "Sabre
wouldn't have activated the distress beacon if he was in a life pod
or on a ship."

"There is one
cyber... adrift in space."

"Translocate
him immediately to the hospital!" Fairen jumped up and headed for
the door.

"My Lord, he's
probably... Locking on... translocating."

Fairen was
already in the corridor, running towards the hospital. Bursting
into the long, aseptic room with its many screened cubicles, he
raced towards a group of medics and doctors that was gathering
around something on the floor.

"Get out of the
way!" he cried in a voice that cracked.

They parted,
bowing, and Fairen stopped, his breath catching. Sabre lay on his
side, curled in a foetal ball, his brow band black. His skin was
ashen, and he did not appear to be breathing.

"What are you
waiting for?" Fairen demanded. "Tend to him!"

"My Lord..." An
older doctor shook his head. "He's dead."

"No he's
not!"

"We cannot find
a pulse, My Lord."

"That's because
you're idiots! He can't be dead!"

Fairen fell to
his knees and touched Sabre's shoulder, snatching his hand away
from his skin's icy chill. He shook his head, his eyes wide.

"I'm sorry, My
Lord," the doctor murmured.

"You can revive
him! Fetch the resuscitation equipment!"

"He's frozen,
My Lord."

"What do you
know about cybers? Nothing!" Fairen looked around as Shrain came
trotting in. "Shrain! Find that cyber tech, what is his name?"

"Tarl Averly,
My Lord?"

"Yes! Find him!
He's probably on Pathos. Bring him here immediately."

"Yes, My Lord."
Shrain tapped his com-link. "Tapping into Pathos' on board security
cameras, checking facial recognition...."

"Hurry up!"

"I must locate
him first, My Lord."

Fairen jumped
up, his brows knotted in a thunderous scowl. "Scorpio! Bring me
Pathos!"

Shrain gaped at
the young Overlord, almost dropping the com-link. Dull groans and
distant booms rang through the ship as it reconfigured, spreading
its mighty arms. The floor shivered.