1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209
He could find solace here, here was safe, here was blocked. He'd built the haven in an instant, a reflexive action when the first implants had pierced his neural cortex, flooding his neural pathways with corrective signals that re-structured, re-designed.
It had taken him a moment, then, a moment that almost cost him everything. But to be fair, at the time they were ripping out his ribcage and replacing the pale, soggy blades of ivory with alloy plates that glistened in the dark, bloody wetness of his chest cavity.
He'd built a wall out of numbers, a steady stream of calculations that deflected the blistering signals of the receivers, but he dared not venture here often.
He twitched to attention, out of the fugue, out of his refuge.
There was a flash in laboratory 2113312 in the heart of the sinusoidal station, the steel-blue hulk that now occupied a position in the center of the known universe. The silicate adsorbtion experiment series; one had succeeded. Information streamed into him. He tasted the data, savoring the algorithms and marveled at the audacity of the computations. It was Nyssa. No one else had such elegance with tribiophysics.
The new formulae and necessary modifications were instantaneously transmitted through out the gestalt. They altered their attack platforms, regrouping, redesigning, from the smallest chrono-annelida to the Command Carriers that were blasting Sontara from orbit. The crust of the Worldsphere, buckled and burst as the newly designed cyber-forms devoured the rock, assimilating it, re-birthing it into animated landforms that were entirely new and no less deadly. The shell began to eat itself. The Cyberfleet poured through, unleashing silver death into the soft, flesh-infested interior.
The host reveled in the new data and the various factions and child groups fought for domination within the group mind, yet he felt a gush of pleasure flow through the artificial glands in his body. The same feeling he'd known when he'd first corrected the data that they were pumping into him, changing, improving it. The way, over time, that he'd improved the entire race. Not seeking to dominate, but merely to correct errors and streamline redundant protocols. He'd tried resisting once, but that way led to… he couldn't … that way was blocked.
The experiment was a success; but now he had to deal with Nyssa.
1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209 1134209
The vast chamber of the research center was dark, lit only by the hazy green halo of the specimen chambers and the sharp, yellow light of the examination couches. The Cyber-Ogri battered at the force wall with its new silver limbs; it had grown a head of sorts, dripping with lichen composed of algae and electronic filaments and bristling with weaponry. The Kroton-hybrid was no less obscene, its crystalline body throbbing with organic fluids and writhing cables. But it was the Trakenite that stood out, her tiny silhouette dwarfed by the creatures she'd created.
She looked the same as he remembered. Slightly older, with more gray and the odd wrinkle, but still the same person he'd known so long ago. Time had passed differently for him. Much differently.
She faced him silently, her expression drawn and haggard in the alien light. She looked expectant.
He raised his arm, weaponry quivering…
… and paused.
1134-
Theyweren'twatchingnowhecouldaccesthesequencesreleasetheemergencyescapepodsdeleterecordsandrunawaywithNyssatheycouldescape
He held out his hand, but gaped with surprise: her arm had shimmered to silver and lanced into him, impaling its serrated end into his chest plate.
He blinked. His life blood and greasy oil spluttered onto the ground before him, rivulets streaking down Nyssa's arm and soaking into her blouse.
He was amazed. He was dying. An automatic failsafe triggered an alarm.
Another transmuted fist severed his neck. It wasn't a clean cut, but ragged and angled. His head dangled to one side, partially attached by residual wires and flapping flesh.
He let out a tortured howl, trying to cry her name but the pain was too great.
Adric died with a wet, rattling gasp at her feet. But his electronic eyes kept seeing. They watched her pull out her arm and shake off the dripping goo. Watched her form fade and flick, sparking into that of a silver man, smooth and gleaming. The figure paused, assessing the many guards that marched into the room, calmly. Then it leapt into life once more, hacking and slicing into the assembled forms, reducing the laboratory to nothing more than a slaughterhouse.
Processors in Adric's head, still sparking amid the wet and grey tissue that was rapidly cooling and congealing, twitched and relayed the observation to the host: assassin, kamelion-droid at large.