Cyberdyne of the Night's Watch

Chapter 4

Lord Commander Mormont paced back and forth behind his desk. Without saying a word, he took a long look at Alliser Thorne. Thorne didn't speak either; he looked over to the side, trying to hide the black eye and bruises all along the right half of his face. Mormont grumbled, then his eyes slid over to Jon sitting in the next seat. Jon had much the same embarrassed expression without all of the bruising. Next, Mormont looked to Cyberdyne, who was standing in front of the desk because the third chair had snapped in half as soon as he tried to sit in it. Unlike Jon and Thorne, Cyberdyne didn't look the least bit ashamed even though he was the one who had beaten the tar out of a superior officer. "Well?" Mormont started. "Who wants to explain what happened? Jon?"

Jon stayed silent.

Mormont turned to Cyberdyne and stared up, noticing for the first time that his head was nearly scraping against the rafters of the chambers. "What about you? Care to explain what the hell happened out there? Why you nearly bludgeoned one of your brothers to death?" He held up a hand. "No, wait. Not even one of your brothers, because you haven't even taken your vows yet. Any response?"

"Jon Snow asked that I demonstrate my combat abilities with a wooden sword," Cyberdyne reported in a monotone voice. He continued staring straight ahead like he was intently focused on one stone in the back of the room. "Alliser Thorne challenged me to combat, and initiated the attack with a lunge to my right side. Upon analyzing his pace and the trajectory of the sword's mo..."

"I didn't actually want to hear about it!" Mormont shouted, thumping a fist onto the desk. "I've heard it a dozen different times now." Jon tried to suppress a smirk. The story seemed to grow more and more outrageous with each retelling, and rumors tend to fly faster than ravens within the Watch. By now, the brothers at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea were probably talking about how Cyberdyne had called down the sword of the Warrior himself to smite Thorne. "Why the hell would you think I need to hear it again?"

"You asked me to explain my actions," Cyberdyne responded immediately. "Without a narration of the events that transpired, it wo..."

"Others take you!" Mormont interrupted again with another thump of his fist. "This is unacceptable! This," he gestured to Thorne's purple eye and swollen lip, "Is not how men of the Night's Watch should behave."

Thorne gave a satisfied huff, finally getting some vindication instead of an endless stream of humiliation.

"And you, Alliser!" Mormont said. "Don't think I don't know that you provoked this. With your training methods, it was only a matter of time before you pushed one of the recruits a bit too far. Just be lucky that this one," he nodded to Cyberdyne, "stopped when Snow here told him to."

Thorne turned to grimace at Cyberdyne, who didn't reciprocate. He was still busy staring straight at the wall.

"Well, you all have left me with no choice." Mormont began to pace again, and the chamber fell silent. "Jon, you and Cyberdyne will go south to King's Landing. You need to bring Othor's head," he turned and pointed to the jar sitting on his shelf containing the remains of the wight's head with teeth still gnashing and eyes darting to and fro, "and show it to King Robert. If anything will convince them to send us more men, that will."

"Leave Castle Black?" Jon interjected. "I've just arrived! You can't se..."

"I can, and I will." Despite his age, Mormont always spoke with the energy and ferocity of a much younger man. "And be lucky that this is all I'm doing. You two need some time apart from Thorne, and I need someone to tell the King about..." he looked at the jar again; the still-moving tongue was pressed against the glass as though the wight could lick its way out. "About whatever the seven hells we're dealing with here. And who better to do that than the Hand of the King's own son?"

Jon blushed. Even here at the Wall, he was unable to escape his father's shadow.

"Bastard son," Thorne muttered under his breath.

Jon's hand curled into a fist, and he felt his face forming a scowl. He didn't want to lose his temper in front of the Lord Commander, but part of him just couldn't help it. Before he could take any action, though, Mormont jabbed a finger toward Thorne. "I will blacken that other eye of yours myself. Snow is your Brother now and you will show him respect. A man's background is forgotten once he joins the Watch."

"Yes, Lord Commander," Thorne growled through clenched teeth.

"As I was saying. Snow and Cyberdyne will head south to King's Landing to inform King Robert of our predicament. Thorne, you and I will lead a party of Rangers north of the Wall to investigate the disappearance of Benjen Stark, and to find out what could have happened to Othor and Jafer." He shook his head slightly, as if trying to get rid of the horrific image of the two frozen corpses coming back to life. "Hopefully by the time Snow returns with reinforcements from the King, we'll know what we're dealing with."

Thorne didn't seem too pleased by that prospect either. He was probably the only Ranger that never took duty beyond the Wall anymore, arguing that his duties of Master at Arms required him to stay near Castle Black. It was a flimsy excuse; everyone in the Watch knew the true reason. They'd all heard the grisly story of Thorne being snowed in without provisions, and returning to the castle with a full belly but one less Brother. The idea of a long investigation in Wildling territory was not at all appealing.

"That's all," Mormont said. "You all are dismissed."

Jon and Thorne exchanged glares, each wanting the other's assignment. But neither said a word. "Come on, Cyberdyne," Jon said, noticing that his companion hadn't moved. Together they walked into the hall and down the stairs, back towards Jon's quarters.

"Have you ever been to King's Landing?" he asked Cyberdyne.

"Negative," Cyberdyne answered. "I have no records of this place in my data banks."

Jon couldn't help but laugh. Somehow, Cyberdyne always had the most absurd, nonsensical responses to even simple questions. After three days here at Castle Black, Jon still didn't know a thing about this man: where he was from, who had trained him, or even who had sent him to the Wall. "You're a weird man, Cyberdyne."

"I am not a man. I am a cybernetic organism wrapped in living tissue," Cyberdyne corrected him.

"Errr, right," Jon said, not bothering to try to get an explanation of what that meant. "Come on, let's get to packing. We've got a long trip ahead of us."