A Farolian Farewell - Chapter 1: War Cyborgs

War Cyborgs

     'I am cyborg 104. My call sign is F104/2649LH. I came with a group of F/LH units from Delmarn, a subservient of the victorious Realm.'
     Here, the cyborg struggled, or so I assumed. First, white noise came from its throat speaker, then a long succession of randomly pitched bleeps, while the cyborg rubbed its sealed mouth, as though trying to prise it open, then it seemed as if another voice sounded from the speaker in its metallic collar.
     'I... I must. I want to tell my story. P-please...'
     The orange diode lit on her eye unit. Its remaining right eye filled with water, appearing tearlike; but I was unsure whether it was or not.
     'I only ask one thing of you...' It was talking to me now. 'For your own safety, do not speak. When my ears were replaced by these - aural units,' it sniffed, 'all output taken in by me was relayed through a recorder and transmitter. The commanders would soon find you, through me. I don't trust anything anymore; especially my mechanics, since I can't control them freely. I haven't made an unguided movement for ten years - almost.'
     Ten years younger? I tried to imagine it, but it was difficult. It was too disfigured.
     'Could you wipe my eye, please? I can't do it for myself.'
     I took a corner of my skirt and raised it to its eye, now overflowing. To think that an all-powerful war cyborg had things that it could not do for itself. Mind, with the absence of hands, which would one prefer in ones eye - a laser or a long hooked blade? I let my skirt drop again, but it eyed my dirty hand with a wistful look.
     'I was human, once.'
     I was not sure about that. I was still very hostile to the Realm and its cyborgs, which are rumoured to be nothing more than very sophisticated robots by the city folk.
     'My name was Cariann. I lived on Delmarn; I was born th...'
     More bleeps ensued.
     'I'm almost dead. What harm is there in it?'
     Yet more; a reproof?
     'I am cyborg 104,' it - she repeated in the hard, metallic way that she had used before. 'My call sign is F104/2649LH.'
     She raised her blade and, suddenly, lopped off the antenna that stood out from her head. The orange diode faded, and the red one flashed.
     'You are safe now. They cannot reach me, and I will be dead soon. At least I'll die quicker this way.'
     I looked at her 'feet'. Normally, these would have been two cylindrical rockets supported on three stilts, but one was missing. She was bleeding through the wound. What she really meant was that the control unit in her eye had injected a fast acting toxin into her which would kill her far faster than the loss of blood would have. This was a standard feature of her kind; when crippled beyond repair in enemy territory, poison was a way of keeping the enemy guessing.
     'I said that my name was - is Cariann. I spent fifteen years of my life in childhood, healthy and happy, until the Realm invaded. I and my sister, Peniann, were herded with other teenagers into a camp and gassed to sleep. I never knew what happened to my parents. From experience since then, I think that they were probably put to death; both were soldiers. The Realm takes no military prisoners. When I woke up, I remember that I was standing up, and another girl was standing in front of me. My next thought was that I could not move, nor could I open my mouth or my left eye. I could not hear bass tones - I was a musician in my youth, so I know how to listen to sounds - but I could hear a voice inside my head. I looked at the girl in front. There, I saw that a hooked blade was where her right hand should have been, and a laser replaced her left hand. Instead of feet, she had small cylinders on tripods - I found out later what they were for - and she had funny bulbs on her ears as well as two rods on her head. Then I got worried. I realised, and I can still remember the cold feeling I had when I realised it, that whatever had happened to her had probably happened to me too.'
     She was obviously getting weaker; there was a red stain now on her green body suit and around it, between her white, plasmesh covered legs, which could have been blood.
     'A voice singled itself out in my head. It asked me if I felt alright. I said yes, but I was confused. It asked me why, so I asked it what had happened to me.
     '"In short," it said, "you are now a war cyborg of the Realm."
     '"Why can't I open my mouth?" I asked.
     '"It has been sealed. You may speak, when allowed, through a speaker in your control unit around your neck. On that collar..."
     'The voice told me that it could paralise me at will, that I was fed intravenously, that my reproductory organs had been removed...
     '"Then how do I breath?"
     '"Through your nose." It answered.
     '"How, then, do I smile?" As if I had much to smile about. I knew the answer; I couldn't. Never to smile, or frown, or kiss, or taste. I wasn't even a girl anymore...'
     She shuddered. The toxin was turning her skin blue, and speech became spasmodic. If she were still able to speak normally, she would be very monosyllabic by now.
     'My sister, I found later, was behind me. F105/3972LH, or 105 for short. As soon...'
     '...as the clamps and life support were released, we almost killed ourselves in our embrace. We didn't know that our blades were as... sharp...'
     '...I had my final shock then. I remember slumping to the ground and weeping. I was totally numb. They had stopped me feeling. They were controlling...'
     'I was not alone. Almost everyone tried to kill themselves, but the controller stopped us by numbing us and relaxing our muscles. We could not fight it. We could not disobey. He controlled our br...'
     The blood was now flowing blue and watery from her orifices and wounds, and her eye was cloudy.
     'You are safe for the present. If you see my sister, F105/3972LH, or Peniann, tell her that I love her. Say goodbye for me.'
     So I spoke.
     'My name is Feftia Pa Korel. I shall tell her, Cariann.'
     'Feftia? A nice... name.....'
     A short series of bleeps followed that. Probably a death-knell signal since Cariann could not have sent it. She died before they were sent.

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