Read The Cyber Chronicles IX - Precipice for Free Online

the cook's assistant."
    "It's enough
now. I don't care about the rest of them."
    Fairen sighed,
clasping the cup. "The tenth man is the ringleader, I could tell.
They all knew it, and they tricked me. None of them knew his real
name, but I sensed it."
    "It doesn't
matter."
    "I thought the
last man would be the one I was looking for, but he was the only
innocent."
    "But how did
they know he would be the last to be judged?"
    Fairen
shrugged. "They didn't, but neither did I. I would still have
executed them all. They couldn't tell me his name."
    "Well, I think
you scared the shit out of everyone, including me."
    "You?" Fairen
chuckled. "How did I do that?"
    "That voice you
used, the lasers, the things you said... terrifying."
    "It's supposed
to be. The bodies of those men will be returned to their families,
with a written judgement attached. Everyone will know the Scorpion
Lord judged and executed them. I believe it is considered a
monumental disgrace."
    Sabre nodded.
"I didn't realise they were executed right in front of you."
    "Summary
executions always are. Scorpio does it. There's no pain, no blood,
no emotions… other than fear, of course."
    "But it was
still tough on you."
    "Yes." Fairen
looked down. "I'm angry too. I demanded the vidrecords of your
torture, and watched them just before I judged those men."
    Sabre groaned,
rubbing his face. "Why did you do that?"
    "I wanted to
see for myself. It made me ill, and angry. I don't understand why
you're not angry too."
    "I am. I
just... I guess I'm so used to being angry about what was done to
me, but unable to do anything about it, I just learnt to keep it
inside."
    "That must be
even worse, to be so angry, yet helpless."
    The cyber
nodded. "I also lack the ability as yet to feel properly, I think.
Anger I've always known, but not the freedom to vent it, so I
suppressed it."
    "Would it have
helped if I had let you kill them?"
    "God, no. I
hate killing."
    Fairen nodded.
"I sense that about you too. Strange, for a..."
    "Killing
machine."
    "Warrior."
    Sabre snorted.
"I never wanted to be a warrior."
    "And I never
wanted to be an Overlord."
    "Yet here we
are."
    Fairen nodded
again. "The enforcer commanders are blameless, but I'll judge them
if you want me to, otherwise I'll release them."
    "If they're
blameless, there's no point in judging them. But there are other
ways in which to make Myon Two pay. There are not enough Overlords
to police this galaxy, as you said. What if you confiscate, or
appropriate some of their ships, and use them to help you? If you'd
sent battle cruisers to Thayta and Permon instead of going there
yourself, they could have dealt with the Corsairs."
    The Overlord
smiled, shaking his head. "Normal ships would have taken many
hours, even days, to reach those planets on the Rim, and by that
time the Thaytans and the Permonites would have been wiped out. And
small ships cannot be fitted with translocation generators. One of
my generators is bigger than all six of those enforcer ships I
captured put together."
    "Station ships
in trouble areas..."
    "Those two
planets are a hundred and eighty-three light years apart."
    Sabre said,
"You could build more Overlord ships, and give them to trustworthy
men, who could use them in conflicts like those. There was no need
for an Overlord, no one was judged."
    "Those were
strange occurrences. Corsairs rarely attack human worlds. Usually
conflicts are between humans, and an Overlord is needed."
    The cyber
sipped his drink, frowning. "Then perhaps a small fleet of battle
cruisers would be useful to an Overlord. You could easily carry
them in this ship."
    "They would be
vulnerable, as this ship is not. If one of them was destroyed, it
would compromise an Overlord's power. People would know that an
Overlord could be hurt, some of his ships destroyed. No, we must be
swift, mysterious and invulnerable, our justice incontrovertible
and our ships omnipotent. While we settle many conflicts, the fear
of us prevents many more from