The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg (15 page)

"He has
convulsions when he fights the cyber," Tassin said.

"Yeah, he
would. So we can assume that some of your motor cortex is damaged
too. The brain doesn't heal, but it does compensate for
damage."

"That's all
very interesting, but how can you help him?"

"There's a
drug that promotes re-connectivity. I'd like to try that. It should
speed up the restoration of your memories, and help to get more
back. The motor cortex damage will also benefit, but I recommend
that you help it along with exercises. You may also have some brain
swelling from the trauma, which I can help with another drug."
Shasen went over to a cabinet and unlocked it, taking out two
bottles, which he handed to the cyber.

Sabre read the
labels and nodded. "These are the correct drugs."

"So you'll
allow me to inject you?"

"Yes."

Shasen drew a
small amount of each drug into a syringe, mixing them together.
"You'll have to remove your shirt."

Sabre obliged,
and Shasen studied the thin, pale scars that ran down the centre of
his chest and along his arms, shaking his head in amazement. "They
did all this in one operation? Bloody butchers."

Shasen tied a
band around Sabre's biceps to bring up a vein, slipping the needle
in. Tassin looked away as he drew blood into the syringe and
injected the drugs. "The side effects of these drugs are
drowsiness, some dizziness and dry mouth."

He pulled out
the needle, and Sabre put his shirt on again. Shasen turned to
Tassin. "What happened to your hands?"

She glanced
down at them. "A few cuts."

"May I see
them?"

"They've been
treated."

"Nevertheless,
you probably need a tetanus jab."

She shrugged
and allowed him to examine her hands, then inject her.

He turned to
Sabre. "Thank you for the information."

The cyber
nodded, his eyes drooping. "You can't tell anyone, or Myon Two will
come down on you like a tonne of bricks."

"I know, but
there are other ways of spreading the word."

Kole chuckled.
"Another Net site? I wouldn't recommend it. Myon Two will shut it
down in a few hours, and then kill you."

"This time
it'll be anonymous. Are they after you, too?"

Kole nodded.
"Of course. We wouldn't be here if they weren't."

"Right." He
turned to Sabre. "You need another three injections over the next
three days."

"Give me the
drugs and I'll do it."

Shasen
hesitated, then handed the bottles to Tassin, since Sabre looked
distinctly sleepy. They left the young neurologist gazing after
them with a mixture of regret and sorrow, returning to the ship,
where Sabre went straight to sleep. Kole made coffee, and Tassin
sat with him on the bridge, gazing out at the spaceport.

Kole turned to
her. "He's more than a friend to you, isn't he?"

Tassin glanced
at him in surprise. "What makes you say that?"

"I've seen the
way you look at him. It's pretty obvious."

She looked
down, chewing her lip. "Yes, he is."

"I guess
there's no hope for me then."

"I... didn't
know you..."

He snorted.
"I've tried not to be obvious, but hell, Tassin, you're a
beautiful, intelligent girl. Any man would find you
irresistible."

"Is that why
you've helped me so much?"

"Yeah. I was
trying to impress you." He sighed. "You do realise that he has no
way of returning your feelings."

"He will when
he remembers."

After a short,
bitter silence, he murmured, "In that case, I'll access my
accounts, refuel, and drop you off on Charon Six, where your top
bidder lives. As soon as you've paid me back, you're on your
own."

"You're angry
with me."

"Hell yeah!
There should be a law against girls falling in love with bloody
cybers. You misled me. You should have told me the truth in the
beginning."

"If I'd told
you, you wouldn't have helped me."

"Not as much,
no. You used me."

"I didn't know
you felt -"

He frowned.
"Don't give me that. You knew."

"I wasn't
sure. I'm sorry. You've done so much. We both owe you a great
debt."

"Yeah, yeah. I
just hope I've got a life to go back to. Myon Two is going to make
it hell for a while."

She leant
forward. "Then come with us. There are plenty of lovely young women
on Omega Five."

"No." He gazed
at her. "You know what the worst part is? He doesn't feel a damn
thing for you. Except gratitude, of course. He'll never be normal,
and I doubt he even knows what love is. Hell, he's sure never had
it."

"He has, from
me, and he returned it."

He shook his
head. "How can you be sure that what he feels is really love, and
not gratitude or just friendship? Most of us have love our whole
lives, from our parents and siblings, then youthful relationships,
until we finally find the real thing, hopefully. People who don't
have it are messed up."

"If you're
trying to talk me out of it, you can't. I know what I feel."

"Will that be
enough? They messed with his mind, and in a big way. Look, I like
the guy, but he could be psychotic."

"I knew him
for a whole year. I was with him every day. He's not... psychotic,
whatever that is."

Kole sipped
his coffee. "That was three years ago. He could have changed. Going
back under cyber control after being free was probably worse than
if he'd never known freedom."

She turned
away. "I don't want to discuss it."

"Fine.
Tomorrow we leave for Charon Six."

"At least he
won't have to fight. Why wait until tomorrow?"

"All right."
Kole put down his mug and turned to the screen beside him, tapping
on the keyboard. Several moments passed, then he leapt up with a
foul curse.

"They've
frozen my accounts! Those bastards!"

Her heart
sank. "There's no money?"

"No!"

Tassin gazed
at him, biting her lip. Now that he knew the truth, would he turn
them over to Myon Two to make his life easier? There was no longer
anything in it for him. "What are we going to do?"

"Your beloved
cyber is going to have to earn his keep, that's what."

She closed her
eyes as a wave of relief washed over her. "Much as that prospect
dismays me, thank you for not turning us over to Myon Two to clear
your name."

"Nice thought.
Just what kind of a bastard do you take me for?" Kole spun on his
heel and marched off the bridge.

Chapter Seven

The bald,
pugnacious man in charge of the arena fight entries raked Sabre
with a hard glance, then hawked and spat. "He looks like a damned
cyber. Only real men can compete."

"He's not a
cyber," Kole said. "He's had a few cosmetic changes made, that's
all."

"He don't talk
much, does he?"

Kole turned to
Sabre, who stood staring into space. He wore his combat clothes
again, since he would require their stretch properties in a fight,
and a strip of black cloth hid the band, this time tied in place to
prevent it being pulled off.

"Tell the man
you're not a cyber," Kole said.

"I'm not a
cyber."

The official
grunted. "Okay. You're number eleven, go and wait in the pits."

Kole led the
way to the edge of the brightly lighted indoor arena, a circular
area with a beige pliafoam floor surrounded by tiers of black and
red seats. The floor was designed to mimic sand, hard yet pliable,
preventing scrapes without getting the combatants dirty. Its
surface was pitted with shallow footprints and dents from previous
fights. Vast lights shone down from a high ceiling, and bright
advertisements scrolled across billboards around the edge of the
arena, above the top tier of seats. A crowd of several thousand,
mainly men, filled most of the seating, murmured and bought drinks
and snacks from circulating vendors. Several brawny men waited in a
walled-off area, some doing warm up exercises. A lot of them were
battered and scarred, veterans of the arena, Tassin assumed, and a
few were fresh-faced youths.

Most had
tattoos, and many had shaved heads. Another official took Sabre's
number and opened the gate, allowing him to join the rest of the
fighters, who cast him measuring looks before returning to their
exercises. Kole found seats for himself and Tassin in a tier above
the pits, and they sat down to watch the torpid, grunting wrestling
match in the arena. Tassin hated asking Sabre to fight, but each
victory would earn him fifty thousand credits, and the overall
winner got two hundred thousand.

Only three
days had passed since they had gone to Shasen's lab, and Sabre's
thigh wound was only partially healed. The drugs Shasen had given
him seemed to have done little good, but the rest had helped. Even
so, she was worried about him. Kole had been distant but polite
since their last conversation, and she missed his easy camaraderie.
Sabre seemed to be avoiding her, too, and she wondered why.

The fight in
the arena ended when one man admitted defeat, and another pair was
summoned. Tassin sat through four more fights, and listened to the
conversations of the men around her, which proved to be more
entertaining. She had never enjoyed the sight of half-naked, sweaty
men indulging in grunting duels of brute strength. The other
spectators seemed to agree with her; they mourned the lack of skill
shown by fighters who merely grappled until one managed to choke or
force the other into submission through the application of pain.
They were soon in for a treat, she mused.

The fourth
fight ended, and the announcer called out the numbers of the next
two fighters, one of whom was Sabre. He wandered into the arena
accompanied by a large, well-muscled man who swaggered and cracked
his knuckles, raising his fists to incite applause from the
crowd.

"This should
be better," the man behind Tassin commented. "Torban's good. Who's
his opponent?"

"Never seen
him before," the other man said.

"He looks like
a bloody cyber."

Sabre had
stripped to the waist, revealing the hard-edged musculature of his
broad-shouldered, slim-hipped physique, and the red scars of the
laser wounds he had had when she bought him were clearly visible.
In the centre of the arena, he turned to face his opponent, and she
hoped he would not be hurt in his attempt to appear to be a normal
man. Torban, who was a good ten centimetres taller than him, and
probably weighed half again as much, sneered as he performed the
perfunctory bow required before the fight began. He straightened
and circled, Sabre mirroring him in the opposite direction. After
two complete turns, Torban lunged at Sabre, trying to grab him. The
cyber skipped aside and landed a lightning-fast blow on the side of
Torban's head. The big man grunted and staggered. If not for the
need to hide what he really was, Sabre could have won the fight
with that blow, she knew. Torban sidled closer and made a clumsy
attempt to kick Sabre, which he easily avoided.

Torban
charged, and Sabre dived aside, snapped into a forward roll and
sprang to his feet with a smooth motion that seemed to defy
gravity. Torban swung around and came at Sabre again. This time he
stood his ground, stepped aside at the last moment and punched
Torban in the ribs as he galloped past. The big man staggered
again, then turned with a roar of rage and lunged. Sabre performed
a graceful backflip, one of his feet hitting Torban in the chin.
The big man collapsed, and an official ran into the arena to check
on him, then went over to Sabre and raised his arm in victory. The
crowd applauded with more enthusiasm as Sabre left the arena.

"He fights
like a damned cyber, too," the man behind Tassin muttered. "Torban
never had a chance."

Another two
sluggish brawls took place before Sabre entered the arena again,
this time with a slender, youthful opponent who seemed too young to
be a threat. The men behind Tassin had other ideas, however.

"It's Terin!
Now we're going to see some action at last."

Tassin studied
the young man, whose physique rivalled Sabre's, tattoos adorning
his arms. The crowd cheered and applauded as he walked around the
arena with his arms raised. Sabre waited for him in the middle of
the arena, and, when Terin finished his premature victory lap, he
bowed to his opponent. As Sabre straightened, Terin kicked him on
the chin, sending him staggering back.

Tassin sat up
with a gasp of dismay as Terin followed that up with a spinning
kick. Sabre ducked and launched himself at Terin as he landed off
balance. His kick sent Terin sprawling, but the young fighter
rolled to his feet with remarkable agility, backing away. Sabre
wiped blood off his lips and scowled at the youth. Terin launched
himself again, trying to catch Sabre in a scissor neck hold. The
cyber flung himself into a backflip, and his feet hit Terin's leg
and sent him into a spin. He fell heavily, rolling to his feet.

"That guy's
good," the man behind Tassin said.

The fighters
exchanged several glancing blows, their skill and agility bringing
roars of approval from the crowd. Sabre matched his opponent,
appearing only slightly better than him, and Tassin marvelled at
his self-control. When Terin made the mistake of straying within
the cyber's grasp, however, Sabre pulled him into a choke hold
until he signalled his submission. As they left the arena, Tassin
turned to Kole.

"I'm going to
see if he's all right. Couldn't you take what he's won and use it
to make more gambling?"

"I could, but
I might lose it."

"Only two more
fights then."

"Then he'll
only have one more to win the grand prize." He glanced at the arena
as two more men strode out to do battle. "I'll need to refuel on
Charon Six to get home."