The Cyber Chronicles VIII - Scorpion Lord (4 page)

"Don't lie to
me." Sabre's grip tightened, making Jorran wince. "Don't forget, I
know when you're lying. You're just trying to get me into a trap
without letting me damage the centre."

"No, it's
true! My agitation is due to panic and trauma."

Sabre snorted.
"Pain and fear, more like. Tell the cyber to guard the door and
allow no entry."

Jorran gave
the order, and Sabre dragged him over to the pile of discarded
clothes, releasing him to bend and pull on the trousers.

"Any of you
move, and you die. Don't imagine, just because I have one leg in a
pair of trousers, that I can't reach you in time. In fact, come
over here, all of you."

They moved
closer, keeping Jorran in between, and Sabre dressed quickly.
Unfortunately, cybers on Myon Two were never armed, but he felt
better once he was clad. The armour and helmet would help to
protect him from tranquiliser darts, but he knew once he left the
laboratory he would not have long. Sabre clipped on the webbing and
surveyed his hostages, revising his plan.

"Hell, why
settle for one hostage when I can have four? You'll surround me.
You're all taller than me, except you." He turned to the slim young
woman, who was attractive in a dowdy way, her brown hair pulled
back in a severe bun. "What's your name?"

"Estrelle."

"Right,
Estrelle, you'll walk in front. Anyone raises the alarm, he dies.
We'll look like a cyber and a bunch of techs out for a stroll. And
bring my brother; he'll come in useful, too."

"Do you have a
name?" Estrelle asked, and Jorran cast her a surprised look.

Sabre turned
to her. "As a matter of fact I do, thanks for asking. I'm Sabre."
He held out his hand, and she hesitated for only a moment before
she clasped it. He nodded. "Brave girl."

"Someone
couldn't pronounce 'cyber'?" Jorran hazarded.

Sabre took
hold of the tech’s collar and twisted it until he gurgled. "Someone
gave me a name, and loves me, you piece of shit. I have a life. An
Overlord calls me his friend, and a queen wants me to be her
husband. A friend risked his life to save me, and beings made of
light deemed me worthy of their help. I'm related to them, as it
turns out. How many people would save your worthless rat hide,
hmmm? How many people love you?"

"My wife
-"

"Shut up."
Sabre jerked his head at Estrelle. "Get going. Lead the way to the
production centre."

Estrelle
headed for the door, and Sabre fell in close behind her. Jorran and
the other tech walked on either side of him, and the last man
followed. His presence so close to Sabre's back made the hair on
his nape bristle, and he glanced back with a narrow-eyed, promising
look that made the man gulp. The tech was not really a threat. He
should know better than to try to attack a cyber from behind, but
it did not hurt to make sure he behaved himself, just in case he
was overcome by a sudden attack of heroism. The door slid open, and
the group entered a deserted corridor, the cyber following at
Jorran's command.

Sabre found it
interesting that the research centre had no alarms, but, in a place
full of enforcers, enemies would not get far. Unless they were
cybers, he mused, something that was supposed to be impossible.
Estrelle led them down the corridor and turned into another that
ended in a door, which slid open at her approach. They strolled
across a tropical garden under a clear dome, the pale clouds of
Myon Two visible through it.

Entering a
door on the far side, they marched along another corridor that led
into a vast, cathedral-like structure filled with rows of
artificial wombs. The plasti-glass containers, filled with yellow
fluid, each held a tiny boy child with an umbilical linking him to
a placenta that fed off a biological interface. Thousands of
artificial wombs lined the room in tiers that reached the ceiling
high above, catwalks running between them. Sabre ordered his
prisoners to stop and gazed around. Great ropes of cables and
feeding tubes hung between the rows like vines, feeding the
infants. Tarl had succeeded in destroying a hundred and
seventy-eight artificial wombs before he was stopped. Sabre planned
to do a great deal more damage than that.

"All my little
brothers..." he muttered, and Estrelle turned to look at him.

"You're going
to kill them?"

His eyes
flicked down to her. "It's an act of mercy."

"We could take
you to a docking port and get you on a ship."

"No. The
enforcers would hunt me down, even with you lot as hostages. It
ends here. This is where I die, in the place where I was born.
Someone cared about me. Someone saved me from slavery, and now they
have me." Sabre gazed around. "I just need to know where the master
control is."

When no one
answered, Sabre twisted Jorran's collar again until he gurgled.
"The master control panel, now. And tell my brother to break the
wombs."

Jorran pointed
to the other side of the room. "Over there. Cyber Fifteen, destroy
the artificial wombs."

The cyber
turned to the container beside him and smashed his fist through it,
releasing a flood of fluid and a squirming infant. Sabre prodded
Estrelle forward. The infants were about four or five months old,
too young to survive outside the wombs. The smashing continued
behind them as Cyber Fifteen worked his way along the row, and
Estrelle led Sabre to a vast bank of lights and keypads. The
console was made of metal, and Sabre eyed it, glancing up at the
cables that emerged from it to snake into the walkways above.

Brushing past
Estrelle, he jumped onto the console and reached up to grasp a pair
of cables, yanking them from the panel in a shower of sparks. Two
rows of artificial wombs went dark as the light and heat elements
in them went out, and he gripped another two cables, ripping them
from the panel. Another two rows went dark, and he moved on to the
next pair of cables. The infants would die within minutes without
the oxygen the power provided via the biological interface. Cyber
Fifteen's efforts would cost Myon Two a fortune, but Sabre's main
aim was to kill as many infants as he could.

Alarms
sounded, and several white-suited techs appeared from an office on
the far side of the room, shouting in confusion and alarm. Sabre
worked his way along the panel, pulling out the cables, each of
which supplied a row of artificial wombs. Two techs sprinted for
the door and the other four ran towards them, shouting at Cyber
Fifteen to stop. The cyber ignored them. Evidently he was a
research and development unit, and the production techs had no
command privilege. Sabre jumped down as the techs ran up, their
expressions shocked and disbelieving.

"What's going
on here?" the most senior of them demanded.

Jorran jerked
his chin at Sabre. "Ask him."

"He's a bloody
cyber! What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Do you
know how much damage you've done?"

Sabre nodded.
"Yes, I do. And I intend to do more. Get over here and join this
lot, or die."

The senior
tech gaped at him. "What the...?"

"He's not
under cyber control," Jorran informed them. "He intends to wipe out
-"

Sabre smacked
Jorran on the back of the head, making him wince and clasp it,
grimacing. "Shut up. You lot, get over here, now!"

The technician
who was furthest away turned and bolted down the row, his white
coat flapping. Sabre cursed and picked up a com-unit from the
console, hurling it at the fleeing man. It hit him on the back of
the head, and he went sprawling.

"Go fetch him
and bring him here. Now!"

Two techs ran
to the unconscious man and dragged him back, dumped him on the
floor and joined the little group of hostages. Sabre nodded. "Good,
now stay there. Anyone moves, they die."

Jumping onto
the console again, he continued to rip out cables, while Cyber
Fifteen started on another row of wombs. More than half the wombs
were dark now, and he worked faster, knowing enforcers would arrive
soon. The metal-sheathed cables scraped his palms, but he ignored
the pain, intent on his mission. Reaching the end of the console,
he walked back to the other side, where the last eight cables
remained intact. Pulling them out, he jumped down and approached
the group of hostages. Estrelle’s eyes shimmered with tears.

Sabre frowned
at her. "What the hell are you blubbering about?"

"They're just
babies."

"They're unborn cannon fodder! Destined for nothing but
suffering and slavery until they're incinerated at age forty!
Do
not
presume to
judge me. I wish someone had done this for me. When you've worn a
control unit for your entire life, then you can judge!" He turned
away, then swung back. "Do you go and play with the toddlers in
their pens? Huh? Have you ever dandled a cyber host on your
knee?"

She shook her
head, bowing it.

"But now,
they're babies! Give me a break, you hypocritical cow! They're
better off dead."

He started to
stride away, then turned back. "Get over here! Surround me and take
me to the sensory deprivation department, and get a move on!"

The group
gathered around him, Estrelle moving in front to lead the way out
of a side door and into another vast chamber filled with rows and
rows of incubators, as they were called. They were the pods in
which the new-borns were encased in form-foam until they were a
year old. As they passed along one of the rows, heading for the
door at the far end, Sabre stopped and broke open a pod. Lifting
out a baby, he handed him to Estrelle.

"Here, have a
baby. Now tell me he's not normal."

Estrelle held
the child in trembling hands, tears running down her cheeks. The
baby gazed up at her with wide grey eyes and raised a chubby hand
to try to touch her face, a smile dimpling his cherub visage. To
Sabre's surprise, she cooed to the baby, who giggled and waved his
arms in delight.

"That's the
first human contact he's ever had," he said. "Does he look
brain-dead to you?"

She shook her
head, then shouts came from behind them, and he shoved her towards
the door in the far wall. "Get moving."

The next door
slid open when they reached it, and they entered yet another vast
room, this one dark. Rows of tanks filled it, each one containing a
five-year-old boy floating in viscous fluid, tubes feeding him air
and nutriments. Each boy had glinting golden control unit on his
brow, the lights flickering in bright patterns of red and green.
Some moved with torpid lethargy, their faces twisted in grimaces,
their eyes wide at the light that shone in through the open door
behind Sabre. He went over to a bank of switches beside the door
and swept his hand across it, flooding the room with light.

"This is where
they lose all hope," he said. "This is where their lives are
finally stolen away."

Sabre went
over to the control panel beyond the light switches, but there were
no exposed cables to rip out. He glared at the panel of flashing
lights and digital readouts, gripping the edge with a growl of
fury.

"Bastards!" he
shouted.

Sabre's face
twisted, and his brow band turned electric blue. Jorran gaped at
him. Estrelle's eyes widened as she looked up from the baby in her
arms, who sucked her finger. The banks of lights turned red, the
readouts dropped to zero, and the fluid began to drain from the
tanks. Sabre strode to the nearest and opened the door in its side,
releasing a gush of sticky liquid. Grabbing the boy within, he
pulled the feeding and air tubes from his nose and mouth, wiping
the sticky fluid off his face. The boy gazed up at him, his
expression dumbstruck.

"You're free."
Sabre gripped his shoulders and gave him a little shake. "Free your
brothers."

The boy
nodded, wobbled when Sabre released him and walked towards a tank,
slipping on the slimy floor. Sabre opened another tank and freed
its occupant, glancing at the group of techs.

"Don't just
stand there like a bunch of dimwits. Lock the door and open the
tanks!"

Estrelle
locked the door with her key card, turning to gaze at Sabre as the
techs moved to obey. Sabre frowned at her and walked closer.

"Put him down
and help."

"No... He... I
can't just put him on the floor."

"Why not? He's
just a cyber host."

She shook her
head, looking down at the baby. "He... he's a baby."

"He's a cyber
host. Give him to me. I'll break his neck and then you won't have
to worry about him."

"No!" Estrelle
shrank away, clutching the child, who whimpered. "I won't let you
kill him."

"Why not? So
he can be turned into another killing machine? There are thousands
more just like him in the other room, pick another one if you want
a toy."

Estrelle
sobbed, shaking her head. "Leave me alone!"

"They're just
going to take him away from you and put him back in his pod when
this is over."

She shook her
head again, turning her back on him. "Go away."

Surprised by
her reaction, Sabre turned to the door lock and scrambled the
codes, then went to a tank and released its occupant. The boy he
pulled out stared through him with blank eyes, his limbs rigid, the
lights on his control unit red, and Sabre dropped him with a grunt
of disgust. Estrelle walked closer as he turned to open another
tank.

"What about
him?"

"He's
catatonic. They'll throw him in the incinerator."

Estrelle
clamped a hand over her mouth before turning away, and he cast her
a puzzled frown as he yanked open the door of the next tank. The
boy inside flailed and wailed as soon as he was freed from the
tubes, his eyes wild. Sabre shook him several times, but he
continued his frenzied struggle against no one in particular, the
lights on his brow band flickering in a wave pattern. Estrelle
turned to watch Sabre again. He snapped the boy's neck with a quick
twist, and she gasped and squeaked.