Cyber-Knife: Apex Predator by Phil Wrede

Author:Phil Wrede [Wrede, Phil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Cyber-Knife had found a cavern not unlike the one where the Taykinh lived; it stretched out in a direction he hadn't expected. A single narrow tunnel fed it, and his now-comprehensive knowledge of the system told him that anyone who wanted to get to the town would have to go through this area. Of course, that presumed the enemy wouldn't just drop hundreds of tons of rocks on them, which they wouldn't. It might demonstrate their ruthless efficiency, but it would not illustrate their nature. The alien robot ninjas had their own sense of honor; it precluded impersonal killing, or cruelty, of that sort.

It had not even taken him two hours to make his way here, and he'd spent much of the rest of the time in meditation, marshaling his internal energies in concert with his technological gifts. He had explored the treasure trove that had previously been locked away inside his mind, discovering the infinite-capacity hard drive carried inside it not just tales of fighting and death, but the works of great thinkers, men and women passionate for peace and community. Plenty, too, he discovered, could not be easily categorized, as they'd lived their entire lives holding matched sets of contradictory ideas in their heads. Cyber-Knife felt as if he could spend his entire lifetime right here, in this cave, relishing in the depth of what he knew.

A breeze wafted through the cave, carrying with it an odd scent, the smell of hot angry metal. Cyber-Knife knew the time had come. He could hear their footsteps; they stepped through the tunnel and into the cave faster than he'd expected. Before he could only see the Class Ones, but now, he could feel them. They pulsed with dark energy in his mind's eye, these inhuman, improper, evil things that had invaded his planet. He knew that he could kill them all - he had no doubt about that - but he believed with equal certainty that he wouldn't survive the fight. He didn't care all that much - his programming wouldn't allow him to die until he completed his mission, but in his heart, he felt that death wouldn't be so bad, if he met it protecting his friends. In the final analysis, wouldn't it be funny if the greatest killer humanity had ever known simply accepted his own end?

The Class Ones resumed their advance, marching up the cave's steep incline, emboldened by Cyber-Knife's inaction. They looked like barely dots now, but that would not stay true for long. “Do something, you bloody fucking idiot!” Excalibur screamed. “Do anything!”

Before Cyber-Knife could raise his arm, though, he heard another sound ring out over the furious marching of the Class Ones' feet: Hnid's voice. “Halt!” It echoed all up and through the cavern.

Cyber-Knife didn't need to turn, for he'd seen what approached, but he did anyway. Hnid and all her people, a force several hundred strong, stormed up from the city. Cyber-Knife felt his heart sing and sink in equal measure;

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