The Core — T.C. Southwell

Sabre's time is running out. The spacer who loaned him to the Queen will return soon. Omega Five is a restricted world, so a cyber should never have been brought here. He has found a cache of modern weapons in a ruined pre-holocaust city on the far side of the Badlands, which will keep Tassin safe. In order to ensure Arlin is free from the Death Zone monsters that have ravaged it for decades, Sabre decides to complete the cyber's original mission and destroy the Zone. Therefore, he must travel to its source: the Core, something so powerful that it bends space and time and draws slices of other worlds into its sphere of influence. Sabre doubts he will survive the encounter, but death is preferable to being returned to the horror of cyber control. He intends to take Tassin to her kingdom and install the lasers in her castle, then return to destroy the Core. Tassin, however, insists on coming with him, along with the mutant girl who has befriended them and the donkey cart he needs to transport the weapons to Arlin. Thus burdened, Sabre heads towards the Core, where Flux-realities sweep through mere minutes apart and mutated beasts appear out of thin air.