The Cyber Chronicles VII - Sabre (10 page)

"I haven't
walked on a planet for... ten years."

"Then it's
high time you did." She shot Sabre a coy glance. "I would like to
invite you to our wedding, if only I knew when it was. Perhaps if
you came with us now, Sabre will propose."

Sabre snorted.
"Don't count on it."

"I will not be
an accomplice to forcing his hand," Fairen rebuked her. "He'll do
it when he's ready."

"But will you
come anyway, just for a short time? I'd like to show you my
kingdom."

Fairen shook
his head. "I'm afraid I must decline. However, when your wedding
day is decided, I will attend it."

"That will be
wonderful."

"On the
condition that I will be incognito. You cannot tell anyone who I
am."

"But My Lord,
if I introduce you as a commoner, that's how you'll be
treated."

"Then you may
introduce me as a noble."

"Of course.
Thank you."

Fairen smiled.
"Your gentle wiles won't work on me, Queen Tassin. Shame on
you."

She grinned.
"Sorry. Do Overlords marry?

"Some have,
yes."

"Then perhaps
you'll meet a nice girl when you visit. There can���t be too many to
choose from on this ship."

"There are
none,” he said. “The servants of an Overlord are precluded from
trysts with him."

"By whom?"

"By us."

"Ah. Then how
do Overlords find a wife?"

Fairen glanced
at Sabre. "Is she always this curious?"

"Usually more
so."

Fairen turned
back to Tassin. "Overlords who have families will invite single
peers to social gatherings, where they may meet their
daughters."

"A rather
limited selection, if I may say."

"Yes, but of a
suitable social rank. Ordinary women tend to be in awe of an
Overlord. To have one court them would be... a rather intimidating
experience, I think. Fortunately an Overlord can sense when a
woman's feelings for him are genuine and not inspired by respect,
but, even so, the daughter of another Overlord is a more suitable
spouse."

Tassin nodded,
considering. "Then I would like to make you a proposition, My Lord.
If you come to my country incognito, the girls you meet will get to
know you for who you are, not what, and therefore you'll find a
genuine love from a far larger selection."

Fairen said,
"I appreciate your offer, but I must point out that I'm only
fourteen, and as yet I don't find girls particularly
interesting."

"I do tend to
forget how young you are. You have the bearing and composure of an
adult."

"But not the
interests." Fairen hesitated. "As you said, the selection of
Overlord daughters is limited, so we do have another way of finding
a mate. This ship is equipped with surveillance instruments capable
of finding a sicle parasite on a bunhound, for obvious reasons.
Sometimes, Overlords have been known to use this to find a girl
they find attractive, who they will then arrange to meet."

"They go down
to the planet?"

He inclined
his head. "If they so choose. It's not encouraged, but as you said,
an Overlord may do whatever he or she wishes, including visit a
world, but not as an Overlord, you understand? That is
forbidden."

"Of course.
Overlords never leave their ships."

"Exactly."

Tassin gazed
at the planet. "I'm sad to leave you, My Lord, but I'm eager to go
home."

"Naturally."
Fairen turned to Sabre. "A shuttle is waiting for you." He dug in
his pocket and took out another silver bracelet. "You broke the
emergency beacon again, so I had another made. Perhaps I should
make a few spares. Anyway, this one has a one-way transmitter, so
you can send me a brief message. Like the wedding date."

"I didn't
break it, Grundel did," Sabre said.

"Hold out your
arm." Fairen snapped the new bracelet onto Sabre's wrist and
removed the old one. "Try not to break this one."

Sabre nodded,
then glanced at Cyber Two, who stood off to the side in an immobile
guard stance. "What do you intend to do with him?"

"I thought he
might come in useful as my protector, since you won't be here. He's
not much fun, though. At least he'll be well treated here, and I
will have my techs see if they can find a way to release him. Do
you think that's the best thing to do, or would it be kinder to
euthanize him?"

"No, keep him.
As long as he's treated like a human being, his life won't be so
bad."

"You know I
will."

"Yeah." Sabre
sighed. "We should go. Tassin is eager to go home, and I'm quite
keen, too."

"Of course you
are."

Sabre clasped
his shoulder. "If ever you need my help, or just want to talk, I'll
be here for you. I'll be glad to see you again. I wish you could
come with us now and live a normal life."

Fairen smiled.
"So do I."

"Why don't you
then? Who would stop you?" Tassin enquired.

"I'm needed
here. I have a calling, and it's not a bad life. Loneliness will
always be my lot, and even on a world such as yours I'd be an
outcast, uncomfortable around people, sickened by crowds. Being an
Overlord has its advantages."

"Well, the
invitation will always be open."

"Thank
you."

Sabre put his
arm around the boy's shoulders. "Come and see us off."

Fairen led
them along the corridors to the shuttle, Sabre at his side, Tassin
and Tarl following. At the docking port, soldiers carried their
packs aboard and Tarl entered it at their heels, but Tassin
hesitated in the doorway.

Sabre turned
to the young Overlord and gripped his shoulders. Despite his
intimidating ebon attire and escort of stone-faced soldiers, Fairen
seemed like nothing more at that moment than a sad, lonely boy
saying goodbye to a beloved older brother. He was paler than usual,
and sorrow shadowed his eyes.

"This is just
so long," Sabre said. "You know where I am, and I'll expect regular
visits whenever you're not blowing up some disobedient planet,
okay?"

"We still have
to have that trial by combat to decide who is more in the other’s
debt."

Sabre smiled
and ruffled the boy's hair. "True. We’ll have to do that sometime
soon. But hey, you could come visit us every week. Whenever you
feel like it. I want you to. You're like a kid brother to me."

"Really? Would
you want a kid brother like me?"

"Who wouldn't?
Ah no," Sabre shook his head when Fairen's face fell. "You know me
better than that. It has nothing to do with your being an Overlord.
I wish you weren't one, then you could come with us."

Fairen looked
a little ashamed, and Tassin was amazed by how his sadness at
Sabre’s departure had stripped away his pride to reveal the true
person behind the Overlord's mask. Her respect and affection for
him grew, and the poignant moment saddened her too.

Sabre patted
Fairen's shoulder and turned to enter the shuttle. He paused beside
Tassin to glance back and raise a hand. Fairen made a slight
gesture, then swung away and marched off as the shuttle doors slid
shut with a wheeze and clunk. Tarl already sat on a couch in the
luxurious passenger area, and Sabre sank down on the sofa
opposite.

Tassin settled
beside him. "You like him a lot, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"I think he
loves you like a big brother."

"Yeah, I think
so too."

She slipped
her hand into his. "I hope you're not too sad to have to leave him
to be with me."

"I wish we
could have traded Tarl for him."

Tarl looked
up. "Oh, thanks."

"Wouldn't you
like to be an Overlord?"

"Not
particularly."

Tassin smiled.
"He's joking."

"I know."

"No I wasn't,"
Sabre said.

She sighed.
"In a few years’ time, girls are going to swoon over him."

"What girls?
He lives in a damned city ship with servants who won't even talk to
him. Did you know that there are between one hundred and fifty-four
and one hundred and fifty-six thousand people on that ship?"

"So many? How
do you know?"

"I told the
cyber to count them, but I had to walk around a bit. That ship is
one hundred and forty kilometres long, fifty-three point eight
kilometres high and ninety-eight kilometres wide."

Tarl frowned.
"And it came up with such an inexact figure?"

"No, it came
up with one hundred and fifty-five thousand, four hundred and
fifty-two, but since many of them were moving around, and there are
a few areas that are impervious to my scanners, it couldn't be
exactly right. There are also seven thousand, two hundred and
eighty-one children and four hundred and forty-seven pregnant
women."

"An entire
space-faring race dedicated to serving the Overlords," Tarl
mused.

"With
complete, unshakeable loyalty."

"Pretty
amazing."

"The
translocation generators are two kilometres in diameter and three
point five kilometres long, and there are six of them. The four
standard drive engines are five kilometres long and three
kilometres wide, and the engines are not included in the overall
size of the ship."

"You mapped
the entire ship?"

Sabre
shrugged. "I was curious."

"What about
weaponry?"

"Seven
four-kiloton laser cannons, two mounted in the front, two on each
side and one at the stern. The main gun is a heated plasma particle
disintegrator, and there are four more particle disintegrators
mounted in the arms, as well as twenty-four two-kiloton laser
cannons. It also has four solar wing generators, five shield
generators, a worm drive engine and eight capture beams."

Tarl nodded,
looking shaken. "They do say Overlord Fairen's ship is one of the
oldest and most powerful."

"It's over
twelve hundred years old."

Tassin gazed
at the screen, which showed a dark forest approaching. "We're
nearly there."

Sabre glanced
up. "They're dropping us in a remote area, not too far from your
castle. We can walk from there."

She squeezed
his hand. "Dena will be so overjoyed to see you. She missed you
almost as much as I did. She had horrible nightmares of you
drowning in darkness."

He cast her a
shuttered look that made her wonder what she had said wrong, then
glanced away, frowning. “I can’t actually think of a better way to
describe cyber control than that.”

“
Drowning in darkness?”

He nodded.

“
She started having them about a week after you left, and they
continued for almost six months.”

He nodded
again, curtly, and she looked down. “I guess that’s when you were
at Myon Two.”

“
Around about then, yup, I would imagine.”

The shuttle
touched down with feather-light precision, and after a minute the
door whined open. Two soldiers went to stand outside it, and Sabre
rose and gestured for Tassin to precede them. She walked down the
ramp into the cool, brisk air of a spring night, glad that Fairen
had given her a new black leather jacket to replace the one she had
lost on Nemesis. She drew in a deep breath and savoured the sweet
scents of night flowers and leaf mould.

"We're home,"
she whispered, tears of joy stinging her eyes. "We made it."

Sabre took the
packs from one of the soldiers and slung them over his shoulder,
then took her hand. "Yeah."

Tarl cleared
his throat. "Maybe we should move away so they can take off?"

Sabre led them
into the forest, where they turned to watch the shuttle rise and
shoot away into the sky.

Tassin smiled
up at him. "Well, which way?"

He pointed,
and they set off through the trees.

Chapter Seven

Tarl tripped
over a root and cursed, grabbing a tree to steady himself. "You
said we weren't too far from Tassin's castle, Sabre. Define 'not
too far', because we've been walking for hours."

Sabre looked
back at him and snorted. "City boy."

"Yeah, I am a
city boy, and proud of it. So where's the city?"

"By your
standards, there are none. Only large villages."

"Okay, so
where the hell is the large village? I need to sleep. We've been
walking all night."

"A long way
still. I think we should find a place to stop for the night.
There's a farmhouse over this way."

Sabre headed
off at an angle, and half an hour later they came to a dark,
ramshackle building beside a sagging barn whence the grunting of
pigs came.

"They're
asleep," Tassin said.

"Of course,
it's two in the morning, Omega time," Sabre replied.

"Should we
wake them up?"

"Unless you
want to sleep with the pigs."

Tassin went up
to the door and banged on it. A dog barked behind the house, and
chickens clucked in a henhouse beside it. Several minutes passed
before a wavering yellow light spilt from the window and shuffling
steps approached the door. It opened to reveal an ageing woman in a
frilly nightcap and long grey flannel nightgown, who held up a
lantern to inspect them with an irritated scowl.

"What be the
trouble that brings ye all a-banging on my door at this ungodly
hour?"

"We're sorry
to trouble you. We're weary travellers seeking a place to sleep for
tonight," Tassin explained.

"Do this look
like an inn to you?"

"If there's an
inn close by, we'll gladly go there."

"Well there
ain't," the crone stated.

"May we sleep
on your floor?"

"Who says ye
ain't gonna murder me and the hubby in our sleep and steal our
stuff?"

"I do," Tassin
said.

"An' who be
you?"

"An honest
woman. These are my loyal companions, neither of whom will offer
you or your good man harm."