The Cyber Chronicles VI - Warrior Breed (16 page)

"You'd better
get down here, something's wrong with him."

"What?"

"Just
come."

Diarda arrived
a few minutes later, and frowned at Sabre. "What happened?"

"I don't know.
Maybe he fainted."

"What kind of
warrior faints while in the throes of passion?"

Tisha
shrugged. "His kind?"

"He was in the
throes of passion, right?"

"He was
certainly getting there."

"And
then?"

"Then this,”
Tisha said. “He just passed out."

"Why is his
brow band full of red lights?"

"How the hell
should I know?"

Diarda went to
the bed and bent to peer at Sabre. "What drugs did you use?"

"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."