The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg (14 page)

Tassin’s
earlier closeness had made him extremely uncomfortable, and he
hoped she would not do it too often. Her reaction to Kole’s embrace
had been negative, so clearly she did not welcome such familiarity
from her friends, yet she seemed to want to be close to him, so why
not Kole? Sabre sighed. Why did friendship have to be so
complicated?

Sabre drained
his coffee and placed his cup in the auto-washer, then headed for
his cabin to get some sleep. His best course of action was probably
to stay away from Tassin as much as possible, and hope she and Kole
worked out whatever differences they had so the hacker would,
hopefully, stop resenting her friendship with Sabre.

Chapter Six

Kole spent
most of the next day sleeping off a hangover. Sabre also rested in
his cabin, and Tassin longed to spend time with him, but now was
too embarrassed to face him. She lay on her bed and stared at the
dimpled plastic ceiling, remembering the previous evening. What
must he think of her? She had not tried to hide her feelings from
him, but he seemed oblivious to them. Now he must think the worst
of her intentions, and there was so much more to it than that.
Without his memories, however, he had no way of knowing that, and
Kole had blundered into a delicate situation, ruining it. She
cursed him and rolled onto her side, trying to sleep to escape her
thoughts.

At dusk they
left the ship, Sabre clad in his new clothes. Tassin avoided
looking at him, and Kole nursed a sore head and belly from the
fight. They entered the gaming room and searched the dark corners
for Shasen, finding him in the same place. He eyed Kole with deep
suspicion, but relaxed when she introduced him and sat down.

Tassin leant
close to say, "We've decided to help you, in return for your help
with the memory problem."

"Great! When
can we get together, and who's got the amnesia, him?" He nodded at
Kole.

"No. We can do
it whenever you can."

"How about
now?"

"That would be
wonderful. Do you have a room here?"

He shook his
head. "We can go to the lab. I have all the passkeys and codes; I
often work late. No one else will be there now."

"Fine."

Shasen rose,
and Tassin studied him when he stepped into the light.
Close-cropped dark brown hair topped a high-browed, intelligent
face with a receding hairline and bright green eyes. His nose had
been broken at some stage, and three scars ran down one cheek,
ending at the side of his mouth. He turned away and led them out of
the gaming room. Kole suggested that they take his air-car, and
they went to the parking area. The flight to the lab was short,
since it was housed in a squat white building not far from the
club. This was clearly the reason the gaming room was Shasen’s hang
out. Kole landed the air-car on the roof and they entered through a
lift that carried them down several floors. Soon they tramped
through a harshly lighted, gleaming white corridor with doors
leading off it at regular, widely spaced intervals. Sabre looked
uneasy, and she wondered why.

Shasen opened
three security doors with a card and a code, preceding them into a
sizeable white room with more of the same harsh lights in the
ceiling, cluttered with an assortment of strange paraphernalia. It
had a sterile smell, and a wide table with several workstations on
it ran all around the walls. Data wands stood in containers beside
each station, along with clipboards and racks of vials. Other
tables in the centre of the room held a variety of devices whose
purpose she could not divine, square boxes with holes in them and
others with buttons on them. Some glass boxes contained small
animals, and a padded reclining chair stood in one corner, cables
festooning it from an overhead arm. A black screen on a jointed arm
hung over it, connected to what looked like a helmet with bunches
of wires protruding from it, which were attached to a box at the
base of the screen’s support. Sabre eyed the equipment as Shasen
turned to her.

"May I ask a
few questions before we get started on the amnesia? Who has it,
anyway?"

Tassin nodded
at Sabre. "He does. Ask him, then."

Shasen turned
to the cyber. "What interface is used between the control unit and
the host brain?"

"Barrinium
sheathed resling implants with psychotropic enhancers and virtual
memory input nodes."

Shasen's brows
rose. "Wow. You don't sound like you've got amnesia."

"It's
selective. My older memories are intact."

"What you just
told me is highly classified information. If it's correct, how the
hell do you know it?"

Sabre looked
away. "I'm from Myon Two."

"A
technician?"

"No."

"Okay. Can the
host access his memories?"

"Yes."

Shasen looked
excited. "What brain capacity does the host possess?"

"A genetically
enhanced, but otherwise normal brain with an IQ of a hundred and
eighty-four."

"With normal
function?"

"Yes." Sabre
hesitated, a slight frown tugging at his brows. "No. Not under
cyber control."

"But if it was
released...?"

"Then
yes."

"So the host
is unaware?"

"No."

Shasen nodded
and turned to a computer, typing on the keyboard. "As I suspected.
This is great stuff. Does the host feel pain under cyber
control?"

"Yes."

"Does he know
what happens to him?"

"Yes."

"Are all his
senses intact?"

Sabre cast
Tassin a rueful look. "They all work, but some not very well."

"So pain is
dulled?"

"No."

Shasen typed
on the keyboard. "Could you elaborate?"

"He can't
focus his eyes, but he can see blurred images. He can hear pretty
well, and pain is not dulled at all."

"And he has
absolutely no control over any part or function of his body."

"Yes."

Shasen turned
to face him. "That's remarkable. I thought only a technician would
know that stuff. Okay, that will do for now. Let's start on the
amnesia. When did it start, and what sort of electric shocks caused
it? Were they applied directly to the skull?"

"Technicians
don't know what I just told you." Sabre leant on a table.

"Then how do
you know?"

Tassin said,
"Let's concentrate on the amnesia. I think you'll find the answers
when you ask more questions about that."

"Okay." Shasen
looked puzzled. "So how did it happen?"

Sabre looked
away, his expression unreadable.

Tassin
murmured, "It's okay." She untied the cloth that hid the cyber band
and pulled it off. "The shocks were applied directly to his brain,
and they were caused by that."

Shasen eyed
the band and sighed. "It's a remarkably good imitation, but really,
this isn't something I find amusing."

"It's not a
joke. Have a good look at it."

Shasen walked
over to Sabre and peered at the band. "The flashing lights are
great, very realistic. Plastic? Black crystals and aluminium?"

"No. Lorasium
cobalt and barrinium," Sabre said.

"That's..."
Shasen touched the brow band, then tugged at it. His eyes widened,
and he recoiled. "Bloody hell!"

Kole chuckled.
"That's what I said."

Shasen
stumbled back into the chair rigged with cables, gasping in shock.
"You... you're..."

"A cyber-bio
combat unit, grade A," Sabre said.

Shasen groped
for the seat and sank down on it, his face chalk white. "You're a
cyber. A free cyber."

"Yes. I was
born from an artificial womb on Myon Two. I was fitted with the
cyber at one year old and spent... a long time in a sensory
deprivation tank. I was trained in every conceivable combat art and
force taught all the skills to operate every weapon or ship. I've
spent twenty-seven years as a prisoner in my mind."

Shasen gaped
at him, and Kole cocked a brow. "A hundred and eighty-four IQ, hey?
That's almost genius, pal."

Sabre glanced
at him. "The cyber needed a good tool."

"This is
incredible," Shasen gasped. "Impossible, too. How did it
happen?"

"The cyber
band is damaged," Tassin said.

"The control
circuit," Sabre added.

"Can you help
him?"

Shasen closed
his mouth and swallowed. "Yes, sure. Why did the cyber shock
you?"

"It was trying
to force me into submission."

"But you got
free. So others could be freed."

Sabre shook
his head. "Not unless their bands were broken exactly as mine was,
and that was a fluke."

"But you're
living proof of my theory. Cyber hosts are capable of cognitive
thought."

"Yes, we are.
We're just not allowed to think."

"My god...
That must be hell." Shasen stared at Sabre, his expression awed and
excited. "May I... examine you?"

"That was the
deal."

Tassin
frowned. "You've seen cybers before."

"Not up close.
They don't object, but people would think it odd if I went around
peering at cybers, and they won't let a stranger touch them.
Anyway, a cursory examination like that won't tell me much."

"That's a
defence mechanism," Sabre explained. "Cybers are still vulnerable
to a few drugs and poisons."

"Why must you
prod and poke him?" Tassin demanded. "He's a man."

Shasen shook
his head, approaching Sabre. "Oh no, he's not a normal man. Cyber
hosts are genetically enhanced, but that's all top secret."

"Why hasn't
any other scientist, one with more money than you, ever examined
one?"

"Because
scientists with wealth and a reputation have too much to lose, and
yeah, probably a few have bought cybers and examined them, but they
can't tell anyone what they found, or Myon Two would hear about it.
Any attempt to discover cyber secrets is dealt with swiftly and
harshly."

"What do they
do?"

Shasen picked
up an instrument and used it to measure a pinch of Sabre's skin,
typing the results into the computer. "That's almost normal. They
ruin them, like they did me." He turned to Sabre again. "Okay, I
know the list of genetic enhancements in a cyber catalogue, and
it's pretty impressive. I want to know the classified stuff. Like
how they get the barrinium implants into your brain without
scrambling it. There's got to be a network of wiring at the end of
those hooks to interface with the brain."

Sabre eyed
him. "How does that help your cause?"

"I need to be
able to tell people about the cruelties."

"Cyber
implantation wasn't painful. I don't remember it, but I do know how
it was done." He sighed. "Barrinium is a pneumonic mimicker; it
remembers the shapes it formed when it's heated and then cooled.
The hooks are formed in a mould with molten barrinium, then flash
frozen. They're then squashed into simple pointed spikes and
inserted through the holes drilled in my skull. The metal reverts
to its former shape inside the brain, but it doesn't open like a
flower, it flows, and it takes the resling with it. In six hours
the metal has returned to its moulded shape, and the hooks are in
place. They can never be removed."

Shasen typed
the information into his computer. "And the rest of the
reinforcing?"

"The same way,
for the skull cap, the rest is simply inserted by surgeons."

"Is the host
anaesthetised?"

"No, they
don't bother."

"God." Shasen
looked sick. "Do you remember that?"

"Vividly."

"Surely the
shock should kill them?"

"The cyber
controls all bodily functions, including reactions to pain. In
some, the control is imperfect, and they sometimes die during the
operation unless it's stopped."

Shasen nodded,
typing rapidly. "Were you given any drugs when you were growing
up?"

"Lots.
Steroids to promote muscle development, sedatives to keep the mind
pliable, growth hormones and a few others."

Shasen picked
up a cable with a sensor on the end of it and turned to Sabre. "May
I?" The cyber shrugged, and Shasen approached him. "I need you to
open your shirt."

Shasen stuck
the sensor onto Sabre's chest and switched on a nearby screen,
studying it. "Your resting heart rate is less than thirty beats per
minute. That's slow."

Tassin glanced
at Kole while Shasen asked questions and Sabre recited technical
details she could not understand. Shasen's hands flew over the
keyboard. For over an hour, Sabre gave Shasen all the answers that
he craved, and the neurologist looked more and more stunned. Kole
wandered around the room, examining the equipment and specimens.
Tassin sat on the cable-hung chair. When Sabre fell silent, Shasen
stopped typing and turned to him.

"Why do you
know all this?"

Sabre
shrugged. "The cyber remembers everything."

Shasen ran a
hand over his hair. "That's horrific. Even worse that I thought. No
one knows this stuff."

"Would they
care?"

"Some would.
Okay, so most of your memory seems to be intact. What did you
lose?"

Sabre glanced
at Tassin. "I was free before, for a year, when the cyber was first
broken. That's all gone."

"He also has
co-ordination problems and slowed reflexes," Tassin
interjected.

Shasen tapped
on the keyboard and studied the image of a brain that appeared on
the screen. "If only I could scan your brain, I'd have a better
idea of what might be damaged. Unfortunately, the barrinium skull
plating makes that impossible. I can have a good guess at where
those hooks are, though. It uses your brain to store its data, so
it must have hooks here and here."

He pointed at
the screen. "When it shocked you, it selected areas that it's not
using, so it only wiped out your memories, not its own. It also
must have hooks in your motor cortex to control your body, and
those areas also received shocks."