The Cyber Chronicles VI - Warrior Breed (9 page)

"This doesn't
look good. Come on bud; let's get you on the couch before you pass
out."

Sabre crawled
into the pod and flopped down on a couch. Tarl and Tassin crowded
in beside him. On the other couch, Kernan lay like one dead, his
skin ashen, his breathing slow and shallow.

Tarl examined
him. "He's in a coma."

"Will that
happen to Sabre?" Tassin asked.

"No, probably
not."

Sabre panted,
and stripped off his shirt. "Bloody hot in here, Tarl, put on the
air conditioning."

"I'll
reconnect the core."

"You do that."
Sabre grimaced, clasping his brow, where the cyber band blazed
red.

Tassin knelt
beside the couch and pulled off Sabre's boots, earning a grateful
smile. "Are you in any pain?"

"My arm's on
fire."

Tarl closed
the power core cover at the back of the pod and pushed a few
buttons on the panel. After a moment the lights came on, the soft
whine resumed, and the pod swayed as it drifted up. Cool air flowed
in through the vents in the roof, chilling Tassin's skin.

Tarl returned
to Sabre's side. "What does the cyber say now?"

Sabre sighed,
closing his eyes. "Core temperature at one hundred and ten degrees.
All immune systems active."

"That's good."
Tarl glanced at Tassin. "Now we wait."

"Can't you do
anything to help?"

"Yeah." He
turned and opened a locker. "I'll set up a glucose drip to keep up
his strength."

Commander
Shrain walked to the edge of the dais and saluted. "No sign of the
cyber's remains were found in the debris field, My Lord."

Fairen
frowned. "That took long enough."

"The debris
field is large, and -"

"Spare me.
Where are the escape pods?"

"We tracked
two, but they vanished."

"Vanished?"

"Yes, My Lord.
The ion trails ended abruptly, and we can find no further sign of
them."

"They must
have been picked up by a passing ship, then."

The commander
nodded. "Possibly, and a super light vessel leaves no trail to
follow."

"Find
them."

"Yes My Lord,
but it will take time." The commander hesitated. "And we received a
distress message five minutes ago. No other Overlord is available
to answer it."

Fairen sighed.
"What is it?"

"Rigal Nine
has declared a planetary emergency. A drought has caused crop
failure and famine. They're requesting aid."

"People who
settle on a desert planet should expect to starve. They knew Rigal
Nine has a fifty-year cycle that causes ten years of drought when
it moves too close to its sun."

"Yes, My
Lord."

Fairen settled
back. "Let's go then."

****

Tassin watched
Sabre, biting her lip. Two hours had passed, and he panted in
obvious distress, sweat pouring off him. Tarl kept adjusting the
drip, increasing the flow, his expression worried. Her midriff
tingled, and she fought the urge to pull up her blouse and examine
it. Outside, the alien beasts milled around, cooing and whickering,
and she wished they would go away.

"Resources
needed," Sabre said. "Entrovine, duroxin and paril."

Tarl dug in
the first aid kit. "I don't have any duroxin."

"Substitute
vioxxin."

"None."

"Substitute
amerin."

Tarl rummaged
in the box and held up a tube. "Only in a cream form."

"That will
have to do, unless you have some formalon."

"Nope."

Tarl handed
the tube to Tassin. "Rub this on him." He filled two syringes and
injected the drugs into the drip while she massaged the oily salve
into Sabre's chest.

"What do those
medicines do?"

"Entrovine is
an immune booster, paril suppresses auto immune response, and
amerin is an allergen."

"Which
means?"

"His immune
system is in overdrive," Tarl said. "Basically they prevent it from
attacking him as well as the virus, and the allergen is to stop him
from becoming allergic to himself."

A wave of
dizziness washed over her, and she swayed, grabbing the couch.

Tarl turned to
her. "Are you okay?"

"No, I feel...
awful."

"It's the
virus. You'd better find a comfortable spot. Kernan's too big to
shift off the other couch."

Tassin nodded
and crawled to the wall, leaning against it. Tarl took over her job
of rubbing the salve into Sabre's chest, shooting her worried
looks. Her vision grew blurred, and a cold invaded her blood, then
everything went dark.

Tarl cursed as
Tassin slid down the wall and convulsed. He crawled over to her and
pushed a cloth into her mouth to prevent her biting her tongue.
Sabre opened his eyes and raised himself onto his elbows,
frowning.

"She's
sick?"

"Yeah, same as
Kernan. Lie down."

"How's
Kernan?"

Tarl glanced
over at the big mercenary. "Still alive."

"Bring her to
me."

"She's better
off here."

"Bring her, or
I will."

"Okay, okay."
Tarl carried Tassin over to Sabre and placed her in his arms. Sabre
held her close, restrained her thrashing arms and stroked tangled
hair from her face. Tarl squatted and watched him, his heart heavy.
Sabre's skin was flushed now, and the brow band still blazed red.
His core temperature had stabilised at one hundred and twenty-one,
dangerous even for a cyber. The air conditioning was on full, and
the pod was freezing, but sweat still poured off him, and he drank
copious amounts of water in addition to the drip. Tarl knew it was
only a matter of time before he succumbed as well, then Sabre would
be on his own.

"Start the
transfusion," Sabre said, breaking into Tarl's reverie.

Tarl's heart
leapt with hope. "You've developed antibodies?"

"I don't know,
but it will still help her."

"No, those
drugs I gave you won't be good for her. They'll interfere with her
immune system."

"It doesn't
matter; her system won't be able to cope anyway. Mine's
battling."

Tarl flexed
his hands, which tingled. "I'm starting to get symptoms, too."

"You'll have
to wait. You've had the least exposure."

"But you need
me to -"

"Just do
it."

Tarl rose and
dug a transfusion kit out of the locker, inserted the needle at one
end into Sabre's arm and the other into Tassin's while he held her
still. Bright blood flowed through the tube, and Tarl monitored it,
his head aching with stress and worry. A cyber's blood was a
precious resource, filled with rare antibodies and genetically
enhanced properties that it passed to its benefactor for the time
it remained in their system.

"Have any
chemical changes occurred in your body?" he asked.

Sabre looked
down at his reddened arm. "No."

"So your
immune system is holding the virus at bay, but hasn't found a way
to beat it yet."

"So it would
seem."

"What's your
bio-status?"

"Seventy-two
per cent."

Tarl nodded.
"Not too bad."

After a few
minutes, Tarl switched off the transfusion, and Tassin grew still,
her skin ashen. Sabre lay back, closing his eyes. Tarl examined
Tassin, who had fallen into a coma like Kernan, and found that the
skin on her midriff had turned pink.

"Your blood's
fighting for her, too."

"Good."

"Perhaps if I
had some now, I could avoid the coma. You might need me."

Sabre nodded.
"Go ahead."

Tarl pulled
the needle from Tassin's arm and inserted it into his own, starting
the transfusion again. Within minutes his hands burnt and the skin
reddened. He switched off the transfusion and settled down to
wait.

"Water," Sabre
muttered.

Tarl held the
cup to Sabre’s lips while he gulped it down, then the cyber settled
back again. Tarl’s head spun and his arms burnt. Sabre continued to
pant, his condition unchanged as his immune system put up a
Herculean fight against the alien virus.

Tarl glanced
around when Kernan gasped and began to breathe normally again,
colour returning to his skin. A brief examination found that his
temperature was rising back to normal, as was his heartbeat. Kernan
opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.

"Hey man, how
are you feeling?" Tarl enquired, relieved that the alien virus
appeared to be non-fatal.

"Wonderful."
Kernan sat up, rubbing his face. "Bloody marvellous, actually. How
long have I been out?"

"About four
hours."

"Wow." Kernan
glanced at Sabre and Tassin. "What's wrong with them?"

"They have the
virus, too. So do I."

"Virus?"

"Yeah, the
beast that licked you gave you a virus." Tarl told him what had
happened while he had been unconscious, and Kernan rubbed his head.
At the end of the tale, Sabre opened his eyes and studied
Kernan.

"Fifty per
cent of your body is now made up of alien chemicals."

"But I feel
great. A bit hungry, though."

"There's food
bars in the locker," Tarl offered.

Kernan shook
his head, rose and crawled out into the sunshine. The beasts
greeted him with soft whickers and coos, and Tarl turned to watch
them. Kernan went over to the nearest tree and ripped off a chunk
of bark, which he ate with evident relish. Tarl wanted to tell him
not to, but lacked the strength. When he finished the bark, Kernan
climbed back into the pod.

"Okay, I'm
officially freaked out."

"What
about?"

Kernan nodded
at the beasts outside. "I can understand them."

"You what?"
Tarl scowled at him.

"Those noises
they make, it's a language."

"I think
you're delusional, and eating that bark won't do you any good."

"They say it
will now. They say they've helped me, and now I can live here."

"They?"

"The beasts.
Particularly the grey birds."

"They've
changed you," Sabre said. "The virus has changed your body
chemistry to be more like theirs."

"Well that's
great." Kernan looked uncertain. "Isn't it?"

"If you were
going to stay here, yeah, but the question is, can you live
anywhere else now?"

A pregnant
silence fell. Tarl looked down at his hands, Kernan frowned at
Sabre.

"How can we
tell?"

"Keep eating
our rations and see how well you do, I suppose."

"And if I
can't?"

"Then you'll
either have to stay here, or find a way to make food like the local
variety."

Kernan nodded,
clearly relieved. "That shouldn't be too hard, should it?"

"It's mostly
cellulose, but it does contain alien chemicals, which are harmless
to us, but will be difficult to manufacture, and if they're what
your body's now using for nutrition, essential."

"So you're
saying if I can't eat normal food anymore, I'm either stuck here,
or I might starve if I leave?"

"Yeah, pretty
much."

Kernan turned
to glare at the beasts outside. "Wonderful."

"Sabre's
trying to make a serum for Tassin and me. Perhaps it will reverse
the changes in you," Tarl suggested.

Sabre shook
his head. "It's too late for him."

"There must be
something that can be done," Kernan said.

"Your body has
been changed on a genetic level. Possibly a high technology lab
could reverse it, but it's doubtful."

"So you're
saying I should stay here?"

"I wouldn't
like to condemn any man to this hellhole, but if you can't survive
on our food now, and you need those chemicals, that might be your
only option."

"No." Kernan
shook his head. "I'm going with you. I'll take my chances."

Sabre sighed
and closed his eyes. "If I can't make a serum, we might all face
the same dilemma."

"When will you
know?"

"Soon, I
think." Sabre shifted, stroking Tassin's brow. "Tarl, put her on
the other couch, I'm getting too hot."

Tarl obeyed,
then returned to his vigil beside Sabre's couch. The cyber groaned
and tossed.

"What's your
temperature now?" Tarl asked, worried.

"One hundred
and twenty-two."

"Shit. We've
got to get it down. That's almost lethal for you, and it's like a
fridge in here."

Kernan shot
him a disbelieving look. "What's lethal?"

"Another
degree or two."

"I need a
bucket," Sabre groaned.

Tarl grabbed a
nearby container, and Sabre vomited into it.

"This is bad,"
Tarl muttered. "I'm going to hook up another drip and see if I
can't make some ice."

Sabre groaned
again, and his back arched in a convulsion.

Tarl cursed.
"He's overheating."

"We could use
the coolant from the pod's life support system to -"

"Do it, and
hurry."

Kernan went to
the back of the pod and unclipped a panel, exposing a row of silver
cylindrical containers. Selecting one, he unclipped it and came
back to Sabre's side. He found several strong plastic bags in a
locker and poured the pale liquid into them, then sealed them and
handed them to Tarl, who packed them around Sabre. When Tarl had
finished, he sat back and frowned at the cyber. Sabre's sweating
stopped and the flush faded with dramatic speed, yet he remained
conscious, staring at the roof.

"How do you
feel now, bud?" Tarl enquired.

"The fever's
broken, and my temperature's dropping rapidly."

"You've beaten
it?"

Sabre lifted
his arm and studied it. "No chemical changes. Yeah, it would seem
so."

Tarl slumped
with relief. "I'll set up another transfusion for Tassin."

Chapter Six