The Cyber Chronicles VI - Warrior Breed (8 page)

"What if
you're wrong?" Tarl demanded. "We'll have no power in the
pods."

"That's a risk
we'll have to take. Given this world's lack of weather or hostile
beasts we don't really need them, and with its lack of food, we
won't have to worry about it for too long."

"What about
these beasts?" Tassin glanced at the herd of quadrupeds that had
joined the grey birds, following them.

"They're not
hostile, but I think they're intelligent, so I wouldn't advise
hunting them. They not only outnumber us, they seem to be in
cahoots."

"If they're
intelligent, they might help us."

"Why should
they? And how? They live off the local flora, we can't. I don't
think they're going to offer themselves as food."

"I guess not."
Tassin cast a guilty glance at the grey birds, which cooed.

Chapter Five

The pods came
into view, and they stopped in surprise. Kernan sat in the hatchway
facing three quadruped beasts, which nickered. He glanced up with
an uncertain smile, and the beasts drew aside, turning their long
faces towards the trio. The grey birds hooted, and the quadrupeds'
ears twitched. Sabre approached the pods, and Tassin followed. Tarl
hurried over to Kernan, looking astounded.

"What
happened?" he demanded. "When we left, you were more dead than
alive."

Kernan glanced
at the beasts. "I woke up. I guess the sedative wore off. I shouted
for you guys. I was in a lot of pain. Next thing I knew, one of
these creatures stuck its head through the hatch and ripped open my
shirt." He plucked at the sodden material. His chest was covered
with a film of clear fluid. "It started licking me. I was too weak
to stop it." He shook his head. "Then the pain went away. It was
weird. It drooled. I thought it was going to eat me at first, but
then I felt so much better. I seem to be cured. Nothing hurts."

"That's...
incredible." Tarl pulled away the torn bandages, revealing Kernan's
chest, innocent of bruises or swellings.

Sabre studied
the beasts with renewed interest, then glanced at Tassin. "Maybe
they'll help you too?"

She looked
doubtful, placing a hand on her ribs. "I'm not in that much
pain."

"You're
hurt."

"They don't
seem to want to."

"They're wary.
They don't know us, and we're not too weak to hurt them, like
Kernan was. Perhaps they just need a little encouragement."

"How does one
encourage an alien beast?"

Sabre turned
to the nearest quadruped and walked towards it until it backed
away, its eyes widening. He stopped and glanced at Tassin. "Come
here."

She joined
him, and he took her hand, drew her past him and thrust her towards
the beast. It took a step back, and several of the others
nickered.

"Show them,"
Sabre suggested.

Tassin
hesitated, then pulled up her blouse, revealing the bandages around
her ribs. The beasts watched her with wide, intent, limpid eyes.
She undid the bandage and unwound it, wincing as its support
diminished. Still the beasts made no move, even when she had
exposed a fair amount of bruised skin. She glanced at Sabre, who
nodded encouragement, and rubbed the bruised area, starting to feel
rather silly. The beast closest to her tossed its head, glancing
past her at Sabre.

She looked
back at the cyber. "They're afraid of you, I think."

Sabre
retreated until he stood beside Tarl and Kernan, several paces
away. Tassin turned to face the beast again, and jumped in
surprise. The creature moved closer and stretched out its neck to
sniff her midriff, its velvet nostrils flaring. Some of the others
nickered. The beast's muzzle touched her waist, its warm breath
dewing her skin with moisture.

Tassin
shivered as it tilted its head to one side and gazed at her with a
liquid brown eye. Long strings of saliva oozed from its mouth as a
slender blue tongue emerged to lick her bruises. At first the
sticky wetness revolted her, and she shuddered, fighting the urge
to evade the gentle caress of its soft tongue. Saliva ran down into
her waistband, and, as the beast became more intent upon its task,
she glimpsed long, gleaming fangs hidden behind its soft lips. A
frisson of doubt and fear went through her, but again she fought
the urge to flee.

A flashing red
light drew Sabre's attention inwards. He studied the data that
scrolled through his mind. First was an x-ray of the beast that
licked Tassin, showing a mouth full of canine teeth, followed by a
thorough cellular and chemical analysis with a surprising number of
unknowns. He pondered the information, puzzled. The canine teeth
were odd, but not unduly alarming, carnivores could evolve into
herbivores when forced to adapt.

Kernan was
proof of their good intentions, although why they would want to
heal aliens was a mystery, and that they could heal someone with
such alien body chemistry was amazing. What perplexed him the most
was why the cyber considered these friendly, and ostensibly
harmless, alien beasts a threat. Still, the cyber's warning was not
to be ignored.

Sabre strode
towards Tassin, and the grey birds hooted. The quadruped backed
away, looking alarmed, and Tassin turned to him with a reproachful
expression.

"Why did you
chase it away? I was starting to feel better."

Sabre took her
arm and drew her back towards the pod. "I'm not sure why, but the
cyber considers these animals a threat."

"But it was
healing me. My bruises have faded a lot."

"I think we
should be cautious."

"But Kernan's
healed."

"Maybe, but I
want to be sure. Let's wait a while. Wipe the saliva off."

The beasts
watched them, nickering, and the grey birds cooed. Tarl helped
Tassin to clean off the saliva and replace her bandages. Sabre
studied the beasts again for several minutes, then climbed into the
pod to remove the power crystals from its core. Tarl explained
their plans to Kernan, and the mercenary went with him to remove
the crystals from the other pod. Tassin climbed in with Sabre and
sat on the couch, watching him work.

"How do you
feel?" he enquired.

She shrugged.
"Better, but still aching a bit. Do you think it's some sort of
poison?"

"I don't know,
and nor does the cyber. Perhaps it's just being cautious. There are
a lot of chemicals in those creatures that it can't identify."

"One of which
is a powerful healing agent, I'd say."

Sabre typed
the antigravity shutdown sequence into the panel, and the pod sank
to the ground, rocking a little as it settled. Unclipping the power
core cover, he pulled it off. "It sure seems that way, but let's
wait and see."

"If it is
poison, what's going to happen to me?"

He glanced at
her. "We'll find an antidote."

"How? We don't
know what it is."

"We'll think
of something. Don't worry about it." He pushed the deactivate
button on the exposed core cradle, and the light faded from the
chinks in the inner casing as well as the panel and interior of the
pod. The soft, barely noticeable whine of its functions faded away.
Sabre unclipped the inner casing and opened it, revealing a trio of
gleaming pink crystals cut into hexagonal rods.

Tassin's eyes
widened. "Those are like the Core."

"Yeah, it's
same kind of crystal. It's a common power storage medium." Sabre
pulled a padded bag from a locker and eased one of the crystals
from its cradle, laying it in the soft interior.

"What kind of
crystal is it?"

"Trilar."

As Sabre
started to unclamp the second crystal, a shout from outside made
him whip around, then brush past Tassin. Climbing into the other
pod, he found Kernan writhing on the floor.

Tarl bent over
him, cursing. "He's having some sort of seizure."

"Can you do
anything?"

Tarl shook his
head, frowning. "I don't know what's causing it. I can give him a
sedative, but he's already unconscious. He just collapsed."

Sabre pulled
open Kernan's shirt and glanced at the cyber's information, asking
for a bio scan. A moment later the information appeared. Kernan's
heart rate was slowing and his blood pressure dropping rapidly, as
was his temperature. A chemical analysis showed several unknowns in
his flesh. The same unknown elements the cyber had detected in the
alien beasts.

Sabre's blood
turned cold. "How long ago do you think the beast licked him?"

Tarl shook his
head. "He didn't say. A couple of hours, maybe?"

"We've got a
problem."

"What is
it?"

"He's being
changed," Sabre said. "Whatever was in that saliva is changing his
body chemistry."

"He's
dying?"

Sabre gazed at
Kernan, who had ceased to writhe. "Looks like it."

"Shit.
Tassin."

Sabre turned
to find Tassin crouched in the hatch, staring at Kernan with wide
eyes.

"I'm going to
die too," she whispered.

"No, you're
not," Sabre said. "Not if I can help it."

"How can you
stop it?"

"I'll find an
antidote. Or make one."

"How?"

He turned to
Tarl. "Where are Kernan's bandages?"

"He threw them
away." Tarl's eyes widened. "No, you can't do that."

"Yeah, I
can."

"No, it's
insane!"

Sabre headed
for the hatch, and Tarl grabbed his arm. "Don't do it. You could
die too."

"Do I look
like I care?"

"Then I'll die
as well."

"Sorry." Sabre
jerked his arm free and crawled out of the hatch, Tarl
following.

Tassin looked
confused. "What are you going to do?"

"Make you a
serum," Sabre said.

"Kill
himself," Tarl said.

Sabre swung to
face the ex-technician. "I'm immune to five hundred and
seventy-four gene-modifying retroviruses. That's what this is. It's
not a poison. It's changing his body chemistry."

"But it's
alien. You're not immune to it!"

"Yet. I have
fifty per cent more T-cells than normal. My immune system is ten
times more effective than yours, and what it can't cope with, it
will modify itself to counter."

"If this is a
retrovirus, it works too fast. A couple of hours isn't enough time
for your immune system to adapt."

"You handled
Kernan's bandages, and you helped Tassin wipe off the spit. You're
infected too."

Tarl said,
"Maybe."

"If you are,
this is your only chance."

"Yeah, but...
You're not. You'll survive."

"Your concern
for my well-being is touching, but I will save Tassin or die
trying, just as she would for me."

Tarl bowed his
head and rubbed his brow. Sabre turned away, but Tarl grabbed his
arm.

"Your reaction
to whatever this is isn't going to be the same as Kernan's. It'll
be immediate and violent. Our immune systems are dormant until
we're attacked, yours is always on high alert."

"One of those
nice little genetic alterations you made?"

"Not me
personally, but yes."

Sabre jerked
his arm free. "Well it's a good thing, I guess. I'll produce a
serum faster."

Tassin shook
her head, her expression anguished. "You don't have to do
this."

"Yeah, I do.
This is one of the things I was designed to do, isn't it, Tarl?
Tell her how cybers are used as living labs." Sabre stalked off
towards the bushes where Kernan's bandages had been discarded.

Tassin frowned
at Tarl. "Is there no end to your colleagues' barbarism?"

"Apparently
not."

"So tell
me."

Tarl sighed.
"Cybers are designed to produce serums, just like he said. They're
also universal blood donors, in case their owners need it."

"What does
that mean?"

"Well, not
just anyone can donate blood to someone else. They have to be the
same blood group, or compatible. Cyber hosts are modified so their
blood isn't rejected, even though they have a rare blood type, a
legacy of the original donor."

"The man they
were all cloned from?"

"Yes."

"Who was
he?"

Tarl gazed
into the distance. "I don't know. I heard a lot of rumours, that he
was a criminal, a fighter, a killer. There were also rumours that
the DNA was spliced with alien genes."

"What sort of
alien?"

"I don't know.
That stuff was all highly classified."

Sabre
returned, rubbing his forearm. "Archetype."

"What?"

"The alien
genes. They came from a corpse found floating in deep space several
hundred years ago. He looked human, but possessed some remarkable
qualities. He was called Archetype because he was so highly
evolved, yet he was dressed in rags."

Tarl looked
stunned. "How do you know that?"

Sabre tapped
the brow band. "It knows."

Tassin stared
at Sabre's arm. "Your arm..."

He glanced
down at it. "Yeah, I know." The skin of his forearm had turned red,
and welts rose on it.

Tarl studied
it, frowning. "What does the cyber say?"

Sabre looked
vague as he accessed the cyber's data. "Alien DNA detected. Immune
response initiated. Activating genes Y12 through 57."

"The entire Y
series. Wow."

"What does
that do?" Tassin asked.

"They're
supposed to deal with all types of alien viruses, but are rarely
used."

"They came
from Archetype," Sabre added, sinking down on the edge of the pod's
hatch. "I feel like shit."

"You should
lie down," Tassin recommended, deeply concerned.

A faint flush
crept into Sabre’s cheeks, and sweat beaded his brow. Several red
lights flashed on the brow band, and Tarl scowled at it, shaking
his head.