Free The Cyber Chronicles V - Overlord by T C Southwell

attention."
    "You are
intervening in something that does not require change."
    Ravian shook
her head. "In my opinion, it does."
    "I will meet
this free cyber."
    "You are biased
by your liking for cybers. That, in itself, is unseemly for an
Overlord. We are opposed to slavery in all its forms."
    "Cyber-bio
combat units are machines."
    "So Myon Two
would have us believe," she said. "But it's a lie."
    "I will see for
myself. We will meet."
    "As you
wish."
    Ramadaus faded.
The lights winked out, and Ravian returned to the couch to sink
down beside Sabre.
    "You're going
to hand me over to him?" he asked.
    "No. You will
meet him here."
    "How long
before he gets here?"
    She shrugged,
selecting a pastry. "About an hour."
    "Have two
Overlords ever fought?"
    Ravian giggled.
"No."

 
     
    Chapter Six
     
    It seemed a lot
less than an hour later when a gleaming ship shimmered into being
in the circular screens of the chamber where Ravian conducted her
interviews. Ramadaus' ship was shaped like a moth with skeletal
wings made of gleaming gold and silver shafts that curved inwards
like Ravian's Spider Ship's legs, the ends tipped with powerful
weapons. Ramadaus' ship was just as immense, but far more
beautiful, patterned with swirling gold and silver striations. The
thousands of tiny, twinkling lights on its ovoid hull gave an idea
of its size, and the two black domes on its bow were, he assumed,
gigantic tinted portals.
    Ravian gazed at
it. "The original Ramadaus was a woman, hence the ship," she
explained.
    "So the designs
remain the same, for the purpose of continuity, to give the
illusion that Overlords live forever."
    She nodded.
"Exactly."
    The silken
curtains at the side of the chamber parted to admit a tall, veiled
figure clad in a sweeping black garb identical to the one Ravian
had worn earlier. Ravian turned to face Ramadaus, and Sabre assumed
a guard stance beside her from force of habit. Ramadaus’ head
turned briefly towards Sabre as he crossed the room to stop a short
distance from her dais. Ravian stepped down and met him on the same
level, a slight, inscrutable smile curving her lips.
    "You reveal
yourself to him?" Ramadaus demanded.
    "As I choose.
He has seen you, too."
    "That was not
my choice."
    "No, it was
also mine."
    Ramadaus turned
to Sabre, contemplating him, then took off his head covering and
veils, folded them and tucked them away in his robe. Removing his
gloves, he stepped closer to study the cyber, paying particular
attention to the brow band.
    "How was he
freed?"
    "I have not
asked him."
    Ramadaus faced
Sabre and repeated the question.
    "Impact at
terminal velocity," Sabre replied.
    Ramadaus
glanced at Ravian. "He still speaks like a cyber."
    "That has not
been my experience."
    Ramadaus turned
to Sabre again. "What do you want from your freedom?"
    "Mostly to be
left in peace to enjoy it."
    "Don't you long
for the destruction of Myon Two?"
    "I'd like the
suffering of cyber hosts to end."
    Ramadaus cocked
a brow at Ravian. "So, the resemblance to a cyber ends. You allow
him to bear arms in my presence; this disturbs me."
    "He's no threat
to you."
    "Atrashka
assures me that he's dangerous."
    "Atrashka wants
my order overturned."
    Ramadaus
addressed Sabre. "How were you tortured on Myon Two?"
    "Exhaustive
combat practice, electric shocks to speed up my reactions, painful
immunisation regimens, sensory deprivation, the inability to use my
own body, obviously, and I was cut open to fit the barrinium
plating without anaesthetic."
    The Overlord
walked around Sabre, then stopped before him again and glanced at
Ravian. "He offends me. You're correct; this one is not a machine.
But the abilities of a cyber should not belong to a fallible man
with emotions and unpredictable reactions."
    "We have the
power to destroy worlds, yet we are human, too," Ravian said.
    "We've been
trained, and we have not been psychologically traumatised, as he
has."
    "You're not
here to decide his fate. I have already done that. This meeting