The Abyss of Time

Chapter Twenty Five

     They rode for fifty minutes, keeping to as straight a line as possible while choosing terrain on which the quads would leave no lasting mark, until Matthews told the others that his oxygen was down to two percent. Jack called them to a halt and they looked around nervously.

     "Anyone see anything?" he asked. "Any drones? Any cyborgs?"

     "Not since we destroyed that one back there," Dundee replied. "I think we got away."

     Jack nodded doubtfully. "Well, we've got no choice," he said. "We have to recharge or we'll suffocate. Let's make it fast, though. I want to head back to the camp as fast as possible."

     They all dismounted, plugged hoses from their quads to their suits and then looked around for somewhere to sit for a few minutes. A small stream had cut a winding gulley through the hard packed earth and they sat on the bank, dangling their legs in the swirling water. Several small creatures looking like silver arrowheads nosed around their feet before losing interest and swimming away.

     Jack watched on his visor's head up display as his oxygen crept upwards. A small light near the bottom of his field of view turned from red to yellow as it passed ten percent, and when it passed thirty it turned a comforting green. He remained tense as the numbers continued to climb, though, his eyes searching the jungle around them for any hint of movement that wasn't part of the local wildlife.

     It took nearly ten minutes for their suits to fully recharge, but Jack waited for his readout to reach a hundred percent before allowing himself to relax. He tensed himself to rise to his feet, twisting around to where the hoses were plugged into his waist, but then Matthews's hand shot out and grasped his wrist. Jack looked at him, to see the other man put a finger to where his lips were behind his faceplate. He repeated the gesture with Jaime, sitting on his other side, and Jaime turned to pass it on to Dundee. That wasn't necessary, though, as the Security Chief had seen the others and was already frozen to the spot, staring at them in alarm.

     Matthews pointed to a spot almost directly ahead of them, about fifty metres away on the other side of the stream. Jack, certain that the other man had seen a drone, looked for the giveaway flash of metallic silver, but the movement, when it came, was larger and composed of all the colours of the jungle. A man-shape of browns and yellows and patches of fluorescent blue. Jack's heart froze with terror. It was a cyborg.

     Not just any cyborg either. There was no way to see his face behind the dull, non-reflective visor but the man moved with an air of casual power and authority. He walked as if he owned the jungle and could force it to submit to his every smallest whim. It was Karalis himself. It had to be, and he was looking in their direction.

     He hadn't seen them, though. Not yet, anyway. If Jack had stood, though, there was no way the cyborg could have failed to spot him. As it was, they were fully within his field of view, but so long as they remained still they were nothing but patches of darkness lost within the bewildering variety of colours of the jungle. The four quad riders watched helplessly as Karalis passed between the fungal fruiting bodies, probably following an animal path, but then Jack's heart leapt into his throat when he saw Dundee reaching slowly for his gun. Jack tried desperately to catch his eye, to warn him against doing something stupid, but the other man had his attention focused entirely on the cyborg.

     Jack could understand the temptation. Karalis made a perfect target but there were six more cyborgs out there somewhere, probably not too far away. The weapon Dundee was reaching for was fully capable of killing the cyborg, but shooting would give away his position to the others and they were undoubtedly armed with weapons that would paralyse them, leaving them helpless to resist being taken and converted. They would have killed one but given them four new recruits. Slaves that would give away the position of their camp and lead the cyborgs right to it. The cyborgs would then have twenty five slaves, including his entire family, to lead against the rest of the colonists at the Alpha site.