The Cyber Chronicles V - Overlord (12 page)

"They were
infected with a deadly plague, and they refused to impose
quarantine, but were allowing infected people to flee to uninfected
worlds. One of those worlds asked for my help. I forbade them to
allow any more people to leave. They disobeyed. Now there's no more
plague."

"What are you
insinuating?"

"I want to
speak to this man,” he said, “and if he's your prisoner, I will
take him from you."

"You're
threatening me?"

"Call it what
you will."

Ravian giggled.
"Oh Fairen, you're such a child. This is none of your concern. He's
only one man, and you've just killed billions."

"I had good
reason to do what I did, as I have to do this. They were going to
die anyway, and you can't break the law."

"Apart from
that wretched girl, no one cares what I do with him."

"I do."

She eyed him,
annoyed. "Ramadaus wasn't prepared to go against me. Are you sure
you want to?"

"Compared to
me, Ramadaus is a gentleman. He would have blockaded those worlds
and destroyed any ships that tried to leave. I don't bother with
things like that."

I know. Your
reputation is fearsome." She pouted. "And you're just a baby."

"Take me to
this man."

"He's
unconscious." She moved closer and put a hand on his arm. "Let's
not fight over him."

Fairen jerked
away. "Don't do that."

Ravian picked
up her wine glass. "You're a silly boy."

An officer
entered and bowed. "Overlord Ravian, the cyber has awoken. He's
having fits."

Fairen stood
up. "Let's go and see him."

"He's having
fits."

"Then give him
a drug. I want to see him now."

She glared at
him, but put down her glass and rose. "I've already told you that
he's reluctant. Why do you want to speak to him?"

"Because I
do."

"Fine." She
headed for the door, Fairen following.

Outside Sabre's
cell, she touched the panel beside the steel door and it slid open.
The cyber lay on the hard bunk at the back of the room. Sweat
sheened his brow, and his chest heaved. The seizures had stopped,
but he looked exhausted. Fairen approached the shimmering blue
force field, and Ravian switched it off with a curse before he
touched it. He stopped beside the bunk and studied Sabre, his gaze
lingering on the trickles of blood that ran down the cyber's brow.
Sabre sat up, eyeing the boy.

"What's wrong
with you?" Fairen enquired.

Sabre glanced
at Ravian. "She sedated me. Sometimes when I fall unconscious the
cyber re-establishes control, and I had to free myself again."

"You do this at
will?"

"Yes, it's
damaged."

"How
intriguing. Are you a prisoner here?"

Sabre gestured
to the cell. "As you see. I wanted to leave, but she put me in
here."

"A simple ‘yes’
or ‘no' will suffice."

"Yes."

Fairen cocked
his head, and the strong lights caught his eyes and made them glow.
"Then you are now free. Your planetary leader is on her way
here."

"My... Oh.
Thank you." Sabre looked at Ravian again. "How are you able to
release me?"

"I am Overlord
Fairen."

Sabre blinked,
patently surprised. "I'm honoured to meet you."

Fairen smiled.
"Of course you are."

"I thought
Overlords were equals."

"We are, but I
am not to be trifled with, and my peers know it. You are
impertinent. Have you a name?"

"Sabre."

"We will go to
my ship,” Fairen said. “Do not attempt to use violence in my
presence. Overlord Ravian's crew will not try to stop me, and I
don't think she will be foolish enough to do anything herself."

"May I ask why
you're helping me?"

Fairen
shrugged. "Ravian broke the law, and because I can."

"Fairen enjoys
using his power, and the greater the challenge, the better," Ravian
said, frowning. "Humiliating a peer must be the highlight of your
week, Fairen. Even better than destroying planets."

"In a way."

"You're a
spoilt brat, drunk on power."

Fairen turned
to face her. "I've only done what needed to be done."

"No other
Overlord would have bothered. You do this just to humiliate
me."

"You humiliated
yourself, keeping a man prisoner as your companion. How pathetic is
that?"

"When you grow
up, loneliness will take on a whole new meaning. Then computer
games and killing billions won't suffice anymore."

"I still won't
have to imprison someone to keep me company."

Ravian glared
at him. "No. Unfortunately you won't."

Chapter Eight

Fairen headed
for the door, and Sabre rose to follow him. Ravian watched them
leave with deep frown. All the way through the silk-hung corridors
to the docking port, Sabre expected some form of attack. Fairen was
right, however. Apparently Ravian did not dare to go against him,
and Sabre wondered if he had jumped out of the frying pan and into
the fire. Ravian's crewmen bowed low to Fairen and parted the
silken curtains that covered the doors along their route. They
arrived in a colossal hangar lined with dumpy cargo ships and
bustling with busy crewmen.

A sleek scarlet
shuttle stood on landing skids in the middle of it, a black
scorpion emblem emblazoned on its side. Several black and
gold-uniformed soldiers stood beside the steps that led into the
craft, and snapped to attention when Fairen reached them. He nodded
to them and mounted the steps, leading Sabre into a luxurious
interior with deep grey carpets and sleek white walls. Fairen
entered a plush sitting room decorated in shades of grey and sank
down on a salmon-pink couch. He gestured for Sabre to sit on the
settee opposite. Three screens in one wall gave a view of the dock
outside, where Ravian's men filed out prior to
depressurisation.

The flight to
Fairen's ship was achieved in silence. The boy concentrated on a
tiny hand-held com-unit, and Sabre gazed out at the crimson ship
that filled the screens, wondering what was in store for him next.
When they landed in the Scorpion Ship's cavernous docking hangar,
with its complement of cargo ships and shuttles, Fairen disembarked
and marched off without a backward glance. Sabre would have
followed, but a crewman stepped into his path and gestured for
Sabre to accompany him. The man showed the cyber to a bare grey
room equipped with a bunk, a table, a chair and a bathroom, and
told him to wait.

Whatever else
Fairen was, Sabre mused, curiosity did not appear to be amongst his
traits. He welcomed the boy's efficiency, however, and deduced that
he strived to appear aloof and incurious to combat the negative
impression of his extreme youth. He wondered if Ravian would still
enforce her order to Myon Two, and pondered afresh the reasons for
her allowing Fairen to take him without resistance. It seemed to
indicate that Fairen was more respected than most, and her mention
of his killing billions was probably a clue.

Several hours
later, a crewman came to inform him that Overlord Fairen wished to
see him, delivering the message in a manner that told Sabre it was
not a request. He followed the man through a maze of smooth black
corridors with grey carpets and luminous white ceilings. The many
doors that lined the passages had glowing red frames, and the
overall impression was fairly daunting. Fairen awaited him in a
massive black room with four circular portals that gave a view of
an alien star field. Crimson lights glowed behind the thin black
curtains that hung against the walls at regular intervals, giving
the room a hellish ambience, and four unlighted, pedestal-mounted
torches surrounded a shallow dais. The boy sat in a carved onyx
chair inlaid with serpentine patterns of gold intermingled with
precious stones, which looked a lot like a throne. It dwarfed the
young Overlord, and overhead lighting threw deep shadows across his
face. Sabre stopped in front of the dais and bowed.

Fairen regarded
him for several moments. "Your planetary leader has arrived. Her
mode of transport leaves much to be desired."

"We encountered
some problems on our travels."

"Yes, the
enforcers. It seems you have many powerful enemies. Myon Two wants
your capture, doubtless so they can experiment on you, and Overlord
Ramadaus wants to execute you for being what he calls 'an
abomination'. He has judged you, and claims that you are a danger
to society."

"He's wrong. I
just want to be left in peace."

Fairen
shrugged. "Two Overlords have judged you now. One finds you
innocent, the other guilty. You are the centre of a controversy.
Both are waiting for me to release you so they can capture
you."

"You told
Ramadaus you have me?"

"As a matter of
courtesy."

"Are you going
to judge me too?"

Fairen shook
his head. "You have been judged quite enough, and I have no
interest in your fate."

"But you forced
Ravian to release me."

"She broke the
law by keeping you prisoner when she had judged you to be
innocent."

"So you're just
going to let her recapture me?"

The boy laced
his fingers. "No. Ramadaus has a legitimate claim on you, she
doesn't."

"You're going
to hand me over to Ramadaus."

"No. I take no
interest in his judgements, but if he captures you I will not
intervene. If Ravian does, I shall, but she knows this, so she
won't try." He sighed and looked down at his hands. "It's hard to
be impartial."

"You're doing a
good job." Sabre considered. "So you're just going to let Ramadaus
grab me as soon as you release me?"

"Yes."

"But you'll
prevent Ravian from taking me."

"Yes. Unless
you decide that you wish to stay with her. There's a limit to how
much I can do against my peers. I am only concerned with Ravian
breaking our laws. Apart from that, I will not concern myself with
the fate of one man."

"I see. Is
there any way I could change Ramadaus' judgement? He didn't read me
as Ravian did; he decided to kill me based purely on Atrashka's
opinion. His reasons were selfish. He was trying to force Ravian to
change her order that cyber hosts should not be caused unnecessary
pain. I'm not the reason for their dispute, just a pawn in it. If
you judge me, surely that would hold some weight with
Ramadaus?"

The boy rose
and stepped down from the dais, clasping his hands behind his back
as he approached Sabre. "What do you know about me?"

"Only the
cyber's historical data."

Fairen nodded.
"As I thought. I was taken from my family when I was just four
years old, and I'm the most powerful empath of all the Overlords.
They call me the Wild Child, for I tend to shoot first and ask
questions later. It's a character flaw. I seldom read people, their
touch disgusts me. I see them too clearly, and too deeply.

"I find other
Overlords especially repugnant. They're filled with the smug
satisfaction of their high station, coupled with the terrible
loneliness we all suffer from. If Ramadaus based his judgement upon
the opinion of another and his own personal wishes, he was in
error."

He stopped in
front of Sabre. "If I judge you and find you innocent, Ramadaus
will be out voted, but that won't stop him from capturing you if he
chooses to disregard my judgement as well as Ravian's. Only a vote
of all the Overlords can bind one of us, and that's not going to
happen for one man. If, however, I find you dangerous to society, I
will execute you myself. Are you prepared to take that risk?"

"I know what I
am, but if it does me no good, I don't see the point."

Fairen
shrugged. "Ramadaus might accept my judgement."

"So if you
don't judge me, my death is a certainty, and if you do, I might
survive."

"Basically,
yes."

"Then judge
me."

Fairen frowned,
considering, then removed his right glove, tucking it away in a
pocket. He met Sabre's eyes. "The last time I read a criminal, it
gave me nightmares for a month."

"I thought
Overlords didn't concern themselves with individuals."

"We don't. We
read people to decide the fate of millions. That particular
criminal was a planetary leader, and my judgement of him saved his
world and brought about his execution."

"How so?"

"He was
corrupt," Fairen said. "A madman with a heart of ice. It was like
touching evil. The crimes committed by his people at his
instigation, namely piracy and slavery, were due to his leadership.
After he was removed, his world became peaceful and moral."

"Why did Ravian
allow you to take me without resistance?"

Fairen smiled.
"She could do nothing. We don't use physical violence against each
other, and our crewmen will not harm another Overlord. Ramadaus
could not take you because it's forbidden for us to bring our
crewmen onto another Overlord's ship."

"I see."

"Now I will
judge you." The boy raised his hand and held it before Sabre's
face, his eyes becoming distant. For several minutes he stood
unmoving and expressionless, then he lowered his hand and his eyes
focussed upon Sabre once more. "Interesting."

"What?"

Fairen turned
away. "You are indeed impertinent, Sabre. You have not once used my
title, and you ask questions of me as if you're my equal. But now I
understand why. Sharing your emotions was like walking in a stiff
mountain breeze, which I've enjoyed upon occasion. Refreshing.
Untainted. You're a killer who hates to kill. A man who feels like
a machine. You feel love, but you don't understand it. You feel
hate, but you reject it. You are, to all intents and purposes, a
blank slate. Never before have I read someone without a hint of
corruption or selfishness in them." He faced the cyber again. "I
find you innocent."