The Greatest Heights of Honour

An Aneka Jansen Novel

By Niall Teasdale

Copyright 2014 Niall Teasdale

Amazon Kindle Edition

Contents

Part One: Heat

Part Two: Fuel

Part Three: Fire

Part Four: The Slow War

Interlude

Part Five: What Once Was Lost

Part Six: The Battle of New Earth

Part Seven: Summer Without Sun

Epilogue

Part One: Heat

Farrington’s World, 6.9.528 FSC.

Aneka looked out across the volcanic landscape of Farrington’s World and wondered again why anyone had ever thought of living in the place. It was midway through what passed for autumn there and the temperature was over forty Celsius in the shade. Slight tremors could be felt at least once a day as the crust shifted and a fault line moved. The atmosphere was standard nitrogen-oxygen laced with enough hydrogen sulphide that everyone except Aneka was forced to wear a filter mask all the time. And in the distance, thankfully, clouds of dark smoke rose from arcs of very young volcanos, belching more toxic gasses into the air.

Farrington’s World was what was known as a Roanoke. Aneka had been amused to hear the term used, especially since the Jenlay seemed to have no idea where it came from. Roanokes were colonies that failed for no known reason, often with the loss or disappearance of everyone in them. In this case it seemed misapplied. The mining facilities and buildings that had once housed around forty thousand colonists were half-buried under solidified lava. Yes, Farrington’s World had failed, and no one had known why, but that was mostly because no one had bothered to look until now.

‘Adams to Jansen.’ The voice sounded in Aneka’s head and she grimaced on hearing it; Marshal Adams was a pain in the butt. ‘Are those seismometers in place yet?’

‘Are you receiving telemetry from them all, Doctor Adams?’ Aneka asked. It was a thought to her, converted by her internal systems into radio waves so that they came out as words to the man back at the base camp facility.

‘No,’ he replied. ‘All but one are returning data.’

‘Then clearly they are not all in place. I’ve got a hundred-metre walk to the last site. It should be functional soon.’

‘I was hoping to have the entire network up and running by now…’

‘Then you should have brought more facilitators. Jansen out.’

‘Doctor Adams has an exceptionally high opinion of himself,’ Al commented as Aneka marched off toward the next target location. The AI was inside Aneka’s chest somewhere, there originally to observe her while she observed Humanity. He was an able psychologist.

‘I wish Bash was here. He could have taken the flak from the jumped-up gowdeyinjing and I wouldn’t have to.’

Adams’ expedition had not come with a big enough budget for six scientists, the Garnet Hyde, and the number of facilitators that should have gone with such a large group. The Federal Administration had helped out a little by adding a seventh person, a Scout, to the team. He, at least, knew what he was doing. Aneka had had the chance to settle in and do the necessary exams to get herself promoted to a rank three facilitator, and Leo Bashford, her boss, had stupidly let himself be promoted as well. The result: Bash was back on New Earth doing lectures and teaching courses, and Aneka was leading the facilitator team here.

‘That will teach you to be good at your job,’ Al commented wryly.

‘Huh. I’m still surprised David took it so well.’

David ‘Monkey’ Gibbons had been second in rank to Bashford, and now he was second to Aneka. When she had completed the necessary exams, he had actually hugged her, even though she had jumped past him in rank and he, at least theoretically, had more experience.

‘He lacks your confidence, even now,’ Al replied. ‘I think he is quite happy letting someone else make the tough decisions. And, of course, deal with people like Adams. Besides, he really doesn’t care what he’s doing so long as he gets to do it with Delta.’

Which was a valid point. Monkey and Delta had made their relationship official in the spring, and they tried to do everything together. It was cute to the point of nausea at times. It had, however, prompted Bashford and Gillian to get their act together, and another good reason that Bashford was not there with them was that he had been on holiday with his new official partner when the Hyde had left. Aneka referred to it as a honeymoon, though marriage no longer existed so it was not exactly the same.

The map scrolling past Aneka’s vision field indicated that she had arrived at the location where Adams wanted the last seismic sensor and she stopped to set it up. The device was a cylinder, ten centimetres in diameter and six centimetres high with a metal probe that needed to be sunk into the ground. Aneka had seen films where they set up similar things back in the twenty-first century, and that had required a lot of digging and careful isolation. Things had definitely moved on.

On the other hand, Adams seemed to have decided that this one needed to be right on top of an old lava flow. The spike was not going to go into basaltic rock without help. Aneka took a heavy-duty laser drill from her backpack and set to work carving a hole into the dull, black stone.

She had just finished cutting the hole when her edge detection software picked up another one a few metres away. From where she was standing it looked as though someone else had been doing exactly what she was doing. Pushing the seismometer into place, she activated it, checked that it was transmitting, and then walked over to the other hole. It had not, she decided, been cut by a laser, but it was a near-perfect shaft cut into the basalt and, apparently, went down a long way. The edge was weathered so it had been there for a while. What marked it as different was that the weathered edge was slightly raised, almost as though it had been drilled up from below rather than above.

‘Some sort of heat-based cutting device?’ Al suggested. ‘A plasma or fusion torch, perhaps. Heat expansion would explain the raised edge.’

‘I’ll show the data to one of the geologists,’ Aneka replied. ‘Though it probably is artificial; I just can’t imagine any survivors here spending the time analysing the rock.’

Turning, she started on the long walk back to the camp site.

Tristar Township, New Earth.

‘The study programmes are going better than I could have imagined.’ Holly Marsden’s image on the wall screen in Gillian and Bashford’s house showed a rather happy woman. Actually, it seemed to show a woman wearing a combination of joy, relief, and surprise. ‘Like I said, at the beginning everyone was a little wary. The students wanted to learn, but they weren’t sure about the Citizens, and the Citizens were either half-convinced their students would be useless or unsure of their own ability to teach them. I’m pretty sure it was the enthusiasm that did it. When we figured out what each of the students was really good at, what they wanted to learn… Obviously we all have to put up with learning, and teaching, the boring stuff, but when they sit down to their own lessons,’ Marsden smiled broadly, ‘I’ve seen fairly jaded scientists becoming enthused about their subject because here is someone to teach it to who finds it all amazing!’

A thought from Ella paused the playback and she grinned at Gillian. ‘I was a little worried she wouldn’t be able to make it work myself.’

Gillian nodded. ‘Yes, me too. Or at least so quickly. I was worried that the first year would be lost as they tried to work out how to make it all work.’ Gillian, and Bashford, had already seen the message from Old Earth. It had arrived a couple of days ago, addressed to Gillian, but with a note saying it was for the whole team. This was the first chance Ella had had to watch it.

The playback restarted. ‘Young Abigail is my little star. I’ve been taking some of her lessons myself because I get insights I’d never thought of from her as much as anything. She has a real talent for people. She’s a little less naive than she was when she first arrived, though I think that was a little bit of an act, or maybe more like a defence. Anyway, she’s seen more of the world and she’s coming out of her shell. We’ve been taking her out to talk to some of her fellow surface dwellers. She’s kind of our ambassador for the programme.’

‘I’m glad Abby’s doing well,’ Ella commented.

On screen Marsden was looking more serious. ‘Thank you for the warning about the Pinnacle,’ she said. ‘When we got it we set up another programme, and I have to say none too soon. It was starting to look like we would get more Enforcers going out to carve themselves surface kingdoms, like those ones Aneka took care of near Matlock. Now they’ve got a purpose again. Instead of being Manu Dei’s police force, they’re the best people we have to defend us from outside attack. And then we started getting attacks on some of the ships going to and from New Titan Station. We’ve put out patrol ships and shifted to running convoys. We haven’t identified the attackers yet and they may just be pirates from out of the system. The Guardians… uh, that’s what we’ve started calling the Enforcers now, it seemed more appropriate. The Guardians have suggested a plan. It’s risky, but they seem keen to show they’re willing to protect us, even if it might mean their lives and we aren’t sure there’s another way. We need to know who’s attacking us. Anyway, enough from me. Councillor Holly Marsden signing off from Prime City.’

The screen went to black and Ella turned to Gillian, frowning. ‘Attackers they can’t identify?’

‘I know,’ Gillian responded. ‘The first thing I thought of was the Herosians, but I’m not sure whether I should mention it.’

‘Why not?’

‘The Administration knows nothing about the evidence you and Aneka found. It was Winter’s theory that it was the Herosians behind the attacks on our shipping, and she’s rather out of favour at the moment. And if you’re right about the head of the FSA…’

Ella’s frown deepened. ‘And you can bet the FSA is monitoring our messages to Old Earth, even if the Administration isn’t doing it routinely.’

‘Yes. We don’t want the FSA taking any more interest in us than they already do.’

‘Yeah,’ Ella agreed, her tone grumpy. ‘Aneka’s well out of it at the moment. I might be able to get around it if I talk to someone.’

‘Would that be someone who you don’t know the whereabouts of because you haven’t seen her since she sent you off into hiding with Aneka?’

‘Well, no, because I don’t know where she is. But I might, possibly, know a way of getting a request to her.’

Farrington’s World.

Base camp was a fairly hastily constructed affair. Large tents had been erected and then covered in construction foam to give greater solidity. It was not going to be much use if a volcano erupted under them, but then neither was anything else. It was waterproof and would even survive impact from a lava bomb if needed, but mostly it was air conditioned, which meant no one had to wear a mask inside it.

The inner airlock door opened up to allow Aneka into the ‘operations room.’ That was what Adams was calling it; Aneka thought that was definitely a grander title than it deserved. It had the computers, which were handling data acquisition from the field sensors, and there was the system handling communications, but that was about it.

Primly and Garlan were on duty at the consoles. Both were geologists, as were most of the team. Garlan was the oldest of the two by a couple of years, here to study unusual tectonic systems as part of his advanced thesis. Aneka would have called it a doctoral thesis, except that he would not get to call himself ‘doctor’ afterwards; the term was used for people who had attained tenure in their profession. Garlan was bleach-blonde, attractive, slim, not especially fit, with a tendency to overwork. Primly would have made a good surf-bum. He was blonder, almost to Aneka’s white, but his hair was longer and worn in a ponytail. He was even better on the eye than the average Jenlay, with a tightly muscled body and bright, blue eyes. He seemed to be there primarily because his girlfriend was Adams’ assistant.

‘Good work on the seismos,’ Primly said, grinning at Aneka. Yes, his girlfriend was there with him, but it had not stopped him looking very speculatively at both Aneka and Delta. On the other hand, Adams was not going to thank her.

‘Everything online?’ she asked in reply.

‘We’re getting data from everything. Be a while before we know what data we’re actually getting. Indaia wanted to talk to you about setting up her equipment.’

‘Thanks.’ Aneka walked through to the second bubble in the little enclave, which had been set up as a mess area, though that basically meant there was a table and some chairs, and a small foodfac in the corner that could provide something like a nutritious meal. It was sufficiently ‘something like’ that Aneka had decided not to bother eating while she was there. The important thing, as far as she was concerned, was that the device could provide water hot enough for coffee. They had Ashtenna coffee available, thanks to a tryst with Stephen Teldarian, and that would be quite enough to keep her going for the entire trip.

Beyond that room was a hallway which led to the sleeping quarters, and then a storage room at the far end which also housed the sanitary facilities. There were six rooms fitted out with sleeping cots and some basic comforts. Two also had some computers for the senior scientists, Adams and Indaia. If you wanted to wash or go to the toilet, you were stuck with using the communal facilities because there was nowhere else to go. It was a good thing that Jenlay were not shy.

Stopping at one of the doors, Aneka knocked and then pushed it open. ‘You wanted to talk, Indaia?’

The tall, slim figure turned in her seat and her thin mouth curled into a smile. Well, it was sort of a smile; some Torem were better at mimicking the Human expression than others. Indaia was a pretty typical Torem female, which meant stick thin with barely any nose and very dark eyes, and skin that was a greyish colour. No breasts, but she was also missing the only differentiator between their sexes: a bulge over the groin area. She was never seen out of her blue-and-white exoskeleton suit; it allowed her to function in normal gravity, though the gravity on Farrington’s World was closer to what she considered normal. There was no sign of Indaia’s roommate.

‘Thank you for attending to me so promptly, Aneka.’ Indaia had a soft, quite pleasing voice, though she spoke Federal with a slight accent, which Aneka assumed came from whatever her native tongue sounded like. ‘Now that Doctor Adams’ equipment is in place, I was hoping you could make time for mine. I am uncomfortably aware that you have been working for some twelve hours without a break, however. I do not wish to appear impatient.’

Aneka laughed, stepping into the room and closing the door. ‘You have been very patient. I’d have put up more of a fight after Adams monopolised our time the way he did.’

‘On a practical basis,’ the Torem replied calmly, ‘my equipment is active and will return results more rapidly. I admit that I am… anxious to see what my instruments can detect below us, but I can wait for you to take a break.’

Aneka made a show of considering. Indaia was right; she had been working for twelve hours straight. After eight she had sent Monkey and Delta back to camp to rest and carried on alone. A Federal standard day ran to twenty hours, though the length of the day was the same as an Old Earth day, so she had been going for over half a day without rest. On the other hand…

‘I run on a fusion cell, Indaia. I can keep going for a while before I need to worry. Your stuff is going to need all three of us though. I’d like to give David and Delta another hour, then we’ll go set it up.’

The Torem bowed her head. ‘That would be most acceptable, Aneka. Thank you.’

Nodding back, Aneka turned and left the room. Grumand, the seventh member of the team, was in the corridor, just leaving the room he shared with Garlan. He was a Scout, a member of the Survey Service, and he fit the mould nicely. Compact, fit, powerfully built, he had short dark hair, and deep brown eyes, and he was, of course, good-looking; every Jenlay was good-looking.

‘If possible,’ he said without preamble, ‘I’d like to get that survey of the structures here done soon. After the sleep period maybe?’

Aneka checked her chronometers. Farrington’s World was tidally locked to its only moon, which had a number of interesting effects. More or less all the water on the planet was on one side of it for one thing. It also resulted in almost a ninety Federal-standard hour day so they were having to stick to a more normal work-sleep cycle to stay sane, and they were trying to get as much done as possible during their forty-five hours of daylight.

‘We’re getting Indaia’s kit set up in the next few hours, then I’ll be offlining for a bit. I should be up whenever you are. Just grab me and we’ll go.’

‘Offlining… Uh, yeah, of course. I keep forgetting.’

Aneka grinned at him. ‘You’ve probably no idea how happy I am that I can say things like that openly, but it’s still nice when people don’t remember. Or when they don’t care.’

Grumand grunted a laugh. ‘I don’t care if you’re a Bemzol from the planet Yog as long as you do your job as well as they say you do, but it’s still difficult to see you as some sort of robot. I mean, you’re…’ He waved a hand absently.

Aneka’s grin broadened. Generally, even though everyone now knew she was basically a synthetic copy of Aneka Jansen’s mind running on a highly complex computer system in a robot body, they found it hard to react to her in the manner their basic instincts told them to. Jenlay had a distrust of robots and cyborgs stemming from the Xinti War. The Xinti had used cybernetic and robotic bodies, and they had built Aneka’s body, but they had done an exemplary job of copying the original barring a few details. What people saw was a very attractive woman with a lot of long, tight muscle. She had a slim waist, not overly wide hips, long legs, and a very expansive chest. The Xinti had looked at the Internet for inspiration regarding the ideal Human female, and so had added an extra cup size or so to her already ample breasts, and made them more pert. Her face could have graced a catwalk model with wide cheekbones and hollow cheeks, and very clear, bright blue eyes, and her hair was a smooth cap of silver-white strands.

Since she did not need a suit to deal with the heat outside, she was in her preferred outfit. That was an Ultraskin leotard that Ella had designed for her. It had one arm and was largely translucent, showing most of her body. There were also Ultraskin stockings and heavy, armoured boots. She was not wearing her customary gun belt, but she would be when they went to do the survey.

‘Thanks,’ Aneka said. ‘I get the general idea. It’s nice to be appreciated.’ She slipped past him, heading for storage and he carried on toward the mess.

The shower was running when Aneka got into the room where storage crates took up one side and a portable bathroom unit took up the other. The unit was self-contained, recycled the water it used, and handled waste management, which all made life far easier than it could have been. However, it was a cramped fit in there and the lighting was poor. Most of them left the outer door open unless they were using the toilet. Through the frosted Polyglass shower screen, Aneka could see a female shape and it looked too tall to be Garlan’s girlfriend, Bicks. The water cut off suddenly and the screen opened.

Sure enough, it was Rice, the team’s very bored biologist. She was above average height, and had better than average looks. Her hair was long and platinum blonde, her eyes were icy blue, her body was fit and smoothly muscled, and she had large, firm breasts, and yet Garlan had not given her the same looks he had favoured Aneka and Delta with. Rice was clearly not at all interested. She had been brought along in case there was any life on the lifeless, volcano-strewn rock. Life normally seemed to find a way to develop whenever it possibly could, but not on Farrington’s World.

‘Hi,’ Rice said. ‘You want this?’ She indicated the shower and then picked up a towel to dry herself. Most Jenlay were not at all shy, and Rice was no exception.

‘I figured a shower might freshen me up before I have to go out again,’ Aneka replied. She had not yet figured out whether Rice was not into Garlan, not into men, or not into sex. The second would have been mildly unusual, but not unheard of, the last would have made her almost unique.

‘I’ll be out in a second.’

Nodding, Aneka began pulling her boots off. ‘You know, if you’d be more comfortable, I could probably fly you back up to the Hyde tomorrow.’

‘No… Tempting as it is, and useless as I am for my specialisation, I may as well stay and try to be useful. I’m as good with scientific equipment as most here, better than some.’ She looked up and gave Aneka a slight grin. ‘And I’m good eye candy. Not that you don’t have that covered yourself. Besides, Indaia’s interesting to talk to.’ She put the towel to one side and stepped into some light slippers before leaving the cubicle carrying a light, Nusilk wrap. Slipping the wrap on, she leant up against a crate to watch Aneka undress, not bothering to tie it closed.

Aneka reached a conclusion. ‘What’s your problem with Garlan?’

‘He’s a shoo.’ The word meant ‘pig’ in Rimmic. Core Jenlay used it as an insult, but then so did the Rim Worlders. ‘I dated him for a few months last year. And then I found out he was spending his time with Trudy whenever he claimed to be working late. I wouldn’t have minded sharing if he hadn’t kept it secret.’

‘Can’t be fun being stuck here with him.’ Naked, Aneka climbed into the shower cubicle and started the water.

‘Less fun for him. Trudy never found out about me. I’ll leave you to it since there’s no room for two.’

Aneka shook her head as she heard the door open and close. Jenlay barely ever considered the idea that someone might not be interested, even if some of them had a more active libido than others.

‘Al, would you get me a connection to the Hyde?’ she asked in the silence of her head.

‘Connected,’ Al replied almost immediately.

‘Jansen to Garnet Hyde,’ Aneka said, her thought transmitted through her own internal radio to the base’s communications rig and so up to the orbiting spacecraft.

‘Hi, Aneka,’ Shannon’s voice came back almost immediately. Obviously the blonde pilot was on duty at the moment. ‘What can we do for you?’

‘Just checking in. How’s the mapping going?’

‘Smoothly. That is one topographically boring rock. Lot of young, fairly low mountain ranges, and there’s the volcanos, I guess, but the surface gets recycled too much to be very interesting and we’re seeing no signs of anything living.’

‘Yeah, we have a very bored biologist down here. I offered to take her back up to you, but she wants to stick around and try being useful.’

‘Shame, she’s gorgeous.’

Aneka laughed aloud. ‘You have Drake to keep you entertained.’

‘Uh-huh, and when we’ve wrapped the high-def maps I plan to let Aggy deal with keeping us in orbit and abuse our solitude outrageously.’

‘Don’t be mean. My partner’s back on New Earth.’

Shannon’s chuckle barely made it over the channel, but it sounded distinctly dirty. ‘Go see Monkey and Delta. She may look a bit shy, but she’s a minx once she gets going.’

‘Right… Call you if anything happens. Jansen out.’

Aneka was not going to do as suggested. Monkey found her attractive, sure, but he was still not interested in her in that way. His father had told him so many stories about Xinti combat robots that he still thought he might freak out if he went to bed with one. Not that she was really worried about missing out. It would make getting back to Ella that much better.

Turning off the water, Aneka opened the cubicle and found herself a towel. A cup of coffee and a little time relaxing in her room and she would be ready to go set up Indaia’s equipment. The shower had helped, but right now the coffee seemed like a really good idea.

~~~

‘What does this thing do?’ Delta asked as she helped Aneka manhandle the large central emitter unit into position. Monkey was busy positioning the four satellite receivers, which were significantly smaller and lighter.

That the women were doing the heavy lifting might have been considered odd, even in this day and age. Morphologically, the sexes could still be differentiated in a similar manner to the way Humans were in Aneka’s original time. Men, on average, still had greater upper-body strength in particular. Aneka and Delta were hardly average; Aneka was basically a robot and Delta had grown up on a heavy-gravity world.

Basically, Delta was an Amazon. Tall and heavily muscled, she was a pretty girl with a rather cute face which belied her physique. These days she wore her auburn hair long, which worked far better for her, and she wore push-up bras to compensate for the effect of thirty years of high gravity before leaving her home world. She was not quite the perfection of beauty that you expected to see from a core world citizen, but Monkey thought she was beauty incarnate.

‘Basically,’ Monkey said, ‘it’s a sonar system. Normal sonar uses audible frequencies or ultrasound; this thing uses infrasound, very low frequencies. That’s why the emitter is so big.’ Monkey was of a relatively slight build, especially compared to his two female companions, but having Delta living with him had resulted in a number of changes, including some increase in muscle mass. He still wore has dark hair as something of an unkempt cap, and he still sported a valiant attempt at a goatee beard, but his expression these days tended to be more content than unsure.

‘So it sends low frequency pulses into the ground and detects the returns, and that maps different density regions in the rock,’ Delta said, voicing her thoughts as she worked out the operating principle.

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka confirmed. ‘Indaia has come up with some sort of novel focussing system which lets the pulses go deeper.’

‘And the receivers are a new design too,’ Monkey added. ‘She thinks she can get about a twenty per cent increase in resolution over previous versions.’

Delta and Aneka were carefully lowering the emitter into place over an area of ground they had previously cleared of debris and rubble. ‘Won’t the pulses mess with Adams’ seismometers?’ Delta asked.

‘Actually, Indaia’s using them as extra sensors; basically they create a synthetic aperture that raises the resolution of her kit, and the pulse returns can be filtered out pretty easily.’

Delta giggled. ‘I bet Adams is still iffy about it.’

‘He wants the data Indaia’s system can give him, so he has to put up with it,’ Aneka replied. ‘That’s why she’s here. She’s a bit of an oddity for a Torem, being interested in geology and planets, but she’s good at what she does.’ She checked the level on the emitter, made a couple of adjustments, and nodded. ‘I think this is ready. How are you doing, David?’

‘Uh… That’s the last receiver and it’s now… Yeah, it’s showing as active.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Jansen to Indaia. We’re ready to activate your emitter.’

‘Thank you, Aneka,’ the reply came back almost immediately. ‘I am receiving telemetry from the receivers. Please activate the emitter.’

Aneka flipped open the Molly guard over a switch, shifted the switch up, and then dropped the guard back into place. ‘Emitter is active.’ There was a slight pause and then Aneka heard it, a sort of throb in the air around the device. ‘Seems to be working,’ she said.

‘You heard something?’ Indaia asked.

‘My hearing has a broader range than normal.’

‘Yes, I’m just surprised that there was enough leakage on the surface for you to hear it. I shall have to work on that. It is an… inefficiency. Everything appears to be working. You may return to your well-deserved rest.’

‘That we will do. Jansen out.’ She looked around at Monkey and Delta. ‘If you don’t mind, I’ll offline now and you two can sleep when I get up.’

Monkey gave a shrug. ‘You’re not only the boss, but you’re also the one working her ass off here. We can work with that.’

7.9.528 FSC.

The mining town of Farrington’s Drift had once been the home of around forty thousand colonists, mostly miners, but also farmers, housewives, shopkeepers, and children. It had been established in 152 FSC and, for nine years, it had worked to establish itself. Mining there had just started to get to the point where they could start paying back the loans that had been used to build the place, and then it had gone dark.

‘Back in those days,’ Grumand said as Aneka swung the shuttle in a circle around the town, ‘colonies would fail and no one really worried too much. The banks had insurance against that kind of thing. Mounting an operation to check for survivors was considered pointless, especially since the planet was known to be volcanically active.’

It did look a lot like a volcanic event had eliminated the town, but it was something of a weird one. On the north side was a crater, maybe twenty metres in diameter, now cold and black. Another crater, slightly smaller, could be seen on the east, and there was a wide crack between the two which, from the looks of the lava flows, had actually been a vent fissure.

‘Two craters and a vent?’ Aneka said. She glanced at Primly, sitting at the sensor station on her right. ‘Isn’t that a bit unusual?’

Primly was staring at the monitors, but he apparently recognised that the question was addressed to him. ‘You’re assuming that those were all one event… Though I admit that the flow patterns suggest they were. It’s unusual, but not impossible, and I am here to study the rather peculiar tectonic activity this planet exhibits.’

‘Good point. Do you have what you need?’

‘Yes, I can’t get better data without samples.’

‘All right.’ Aneka picked a flat spot near the largest structure and shifted the shuttle toward it. ‘Delta, you’re with Mark. Lidia, you want to wander around with them or come in with me and Nate?’

Rice stepped into the cockpit, already in her heat suit, which had the prerequisite of all good Jenlay garments: it was tight. ‘I’ll come with you,’ she said. ‘There’s no life on any of the other lava fields on this cinder, maybe there’s something in the buildings.’

‘Cockroaches,’ Aneka suggested.

‘Those things are everywhere. If there aren’t any I’ll be surprised.’

‘Huh. Everyone remember your masks,’ Aneka reminded them. ‘You probably won’t notice anything more than a bad smell at first, but the atmosphere here will eat your lungs if you breathe it for too long.’ She put the shuttle down smoothly, checked it seemed stable, and then shut down the antigravity system.

The ground floor levels of the buildings had been entirely submerged by the lava flows. On the sides facing the craters the flow had banked up, covering the second floor windows, but some were still visible on the other sides, all of them covered over by heavy metal shields.

Aneka examined one of these, grunted, and dug around in her pack for a plasma torch. ‘Should be able to cut our way in,’ she said. ‘I go first once we’re through. I know you’re a Scout, Nate, but on this mission you’re my responsibility.’ She activated the torch and a white hot ‘flame’ of plasma began playing over the metal. It was bubbling in under a second.

‘I am not going to argue with a woman holding a plasma jet,’ Grumand replied. ‘Shouldn’t you be wearing goggles for that?’

‘My eyes have glare protection built in. Delta, you okay out there?’

‘Sure,’ Delta replied over the suit radios. ‘I’m thinking of bringing David back here on vacation next year. Long days, warm weather, lots of black lava ropes all over the ground.’

‘It’s typical of young basaltic lava flows,’ Primly stated. ‘It would have been hot when it hit the town, upwards of fifteen-hundred Kelvin. Very fluid. That’s why there are splashes high on the walls.’

‘The Plascrete held up well,’ Aneka commented. There was a clang as the window shield dropped away. ‘Okay, we’re in. Delta, keep in touch.’

The Polyglass inside the shield had cracked and fallen in, probably due to the heat, but there was no sign of any lava inside the room. There was also no light. Aneka took a box from the back of her belt, opened it, and sent a cloud of tiny glowing robots in through the window before drawing one of her two pistols and following them.

The room looked like it had been an office. There was a desk and chair, a work console sitting on the desk. Everything seemed intact. No real sign of heat or fire damage marked the furniture, though the interior paint on the outer wall had bubbled at the bottom.

The office door opened with a squeal; the hinges rusted by a few centuries of exposure to the acidic atmosphere. Outside the corridor was dark, but even less damaged than the office.

‘Okay,’ Aneka said, ‘so the lava flows in and engulfs the town.’

‘That seems to be what happened,’ Grumand agreed.

‘But they had to have had some warning, and even if they didn’t, the interior of this place seems fine. People could have survived inside the buildings. All the shutters were closed. There was no evidence of anyone leaving after the event.’

Grumand was quiet for a second as he checked another room. ‘I admit that does seem strange. I suggest we check the ground floor. The few files we have on this place suggest the main mining office was down there. There could still be records, maybe some intact computer equipment.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Lidia? Any sign of life?’

‘Webbing,’ Rice replied. ‘Structure and composition is identical to the silk made by Earth spiders. Imports, and I’m not seeing anything that originated the webs.’

‘No cockroaches?’

Rice barked a laugh. ‘Not yet. Give them time.’

They found a stairwell toward the end of the corridor and Aneka sent the firefly bots ahead of them to check the way. The stairs looked solid, but then Plascrete could handle centuries without decaying. There were examples of it on Old Earth going back to before the Xinti War which still had structural integrity. There was still no sign of lava, so they headed down. Aneka was just about to go through the doorway at the bottom when Rice stopped her.

‘Wait…’ The biologist had swung her torch into a corner under the stairs. There was a blackened patch of Plascrete there, along with a few scattered pieces of something that looked like shell. Rice dropped to one knee and took a sample container and tweezers from her belt. ‘Looks like we found the ’roaches, or what’s left of them.’ She held up a partial wing case, which looked like it had come from a big cockroach. The rear end of it looked as though it had been seared away. There were a couple of oddly shaped rocks among the shells; almost like fossilised dung, or worms, they were elongated and twisted, almost extruded, and shiny black in colour.

‘It looks like someone set a ’roach bonfire,’ Aneka commented. ‘Is that a laser burn, or…?’

‘Looks more like it came into contact with a very hot surface,’ Rice replied, dropping the shell into her container.

‘There was a really old movie about cockroaches that could start fires by rubbing their legs together.’ Aneka looked down at the blackened patch of Plascrete. ‘I don’t think they roasted themselves doing it.’

‘Does make me think,’ Grumand said. ‘Some of the old Plascrete mixes, when they got really hot, they would outgas toxic fumes. The polymers used were a little unstable. Modern ones don’t do it, but when this place was built… It’s a possibility.’

Aneka turned back to the door. ‘Trapped in here and poisoned, wonderful.’ She stopped, frowning at the door. The bottom few centimetres of it had been eaten away by something. As the fireflies dropped down to that level for her, she could see scorch marks on the paint. ‘Something weird happened here,’ she said, and then pushed through the door.

The mining office was two doors down. Grumand wandered among the computers, grunting and frowning as he went. The room was fairly large with an office at one end, presumably for the manager, and a number of workstations around the walls. The middle of the room was taken up with a large, apparently scale, model of the area as it had been when the town had been alive. Each building had a piece of plastic tape with letters embossed into it naming the structure. Four mines were visible to the east and west of the town.

‘Al, can you give me a projection of the current mapping data from the Hyde over that model?’ Aneka asked silently.

‘We only have low-resolution topographic data.’

‘That should be good enough.’

‘Processing…’ An image appeared, overlaying the model and slightly above it, shifting to stay in place as she walked around the table.

‘Useless,’ Grumand said. ‘Every single machine has been burned out. Like someone set a fire in them. I mean, it almost looks deliberate.’

‘Odd. Want some more odd?’

‘Hit me.’

‘There are two buildings in this model which aren’t in our current topographic map. The tape says they were smelting plants.’

‘The colony was making do shipping ore out to planets that could smelt it. Aluminium and gold primarily. They were due to start smelting their own ores around the time they went dark. That was going to make the difference on their economic viability. Maybe the plants exploded.’

‘No, the craters are where the two plants were.’

‘Seriously?’ Grumand sounded justifiably disbelieving. Aneka nodded. ‘Two plants blowing up, some sort of weird accident or even sabotage, I could almost buy. Two volcanos opening up right under both buildings…’

His speculation was brought to a halt by the sound of Rice’s shriek. Kicking herself for not keeping a closer eye on the biologist, Aneka bolted for the door. Grumand followed when his brain and body had caught up with Aneka’s, but he was still a couple of seconds behind her when she reached Rice, who was standing with her back against the corridor wall, her eyes on something in the room opposite.

‘What is it?’ Aneka snapped. The woman did not look harmed, but her face was pale in the light from the microbots. Turning her head, Aneka followed her gaze and saw the bodies.

There were three of them, huddled into a corner of what looked like a storeroom. Aneka could see another leg, probably from someone lying on the floor. They were skeletons now, after several centuries in a slightly acidic atmosphere, skeletons still dressed in woven bioplastic clothing. She moved into the room as the firefly swarm caught up with her and found half a dozen more bodies dotted around the room. Aside from the one on the floor, all of them had died with their backs pressed to the walls and there was one other odd thing.

‘It looks like a little volcano,’ Grumand commented, squatting beside the black basaltic plug that bulged a couple of centimetres out of the floor in the middle of the room. ‘They came in here to hide from the lava, and it burst through inside. The heat, and the fumes… They were poisoned, but not by the Plascrete.’

‘The, uh, chemsniffer,’ Rice said, looking down at a gadget she was holding to avoid looking at the skeletons. ‘The chemsniffer is showing higher than normal levels of sulphur compounds in here. The walls are coated in the stuff.’

‘Mystery solved, I guess,’ Aneka said, frowning. Somehow it did not feel right.

‘Looks like it,’ Grumand agreed. ‘I can write this up. If we have time, I’ll come back and do a more detailed survey of the area, for completeness.’

‘Can we leave?’ Rice asked. ‘There’s nothing living here for me to look at.’

‘Yeah, sure, we can go.’

Aneka let them go ahead of her, and pulled the door closed behind her. It seemed right, but as she did so she noticed that the bottom of the door had been burned away in the same way as the one in the stairwell had been, almost as though some lava had crawled across the floor to do it.

Yorkbridge Mid-town, New Earth.

Ella was out at a club, but she was not out clubbing. Her mode of dress, translucent halter top and micro-skirt, suggested she was there for a good time, and she smiled brightly as she moved through the crowd, but actually she was just looking for someone.

Toward the back she spotted a bright patch of red, and moved closer. Sure enough a tall, lithe woman with an expansive chest and long, scarlet hair was moving between the tables with a tray. Ella spotted an empty table, caught the woman’s eye in passing, and went over to sit down.

Smiling very brightly, the waitress strutted across to Ella’s table a moment later. ‘What can I get you?’

‘Something warming,’ Ella replied, ‘it’s cold out.’ Which was a dumb signal in a way; it was hardly ever cold on New Earth at this latitude.

‘Okay, I’ll be right with you.’

Ella waited quietly for just over a minute, and then got up to slip back out of the bar. She was around a hundred metres away when a tall, buxom, brunette woman fell into step beside her.

‘We got a message through from New Earth a couple of days ago,’ Ella said. ‘They’ve had attacks on ships moving between Old Earth and Titan, and they haven’t been able to identify the attackers.’

‘That sounds familiar,’ the brunette replied.

‘We need to let them know about that theory, but…’

‘Yes, you’re quite right, your messages are monitored. I can arrange something.’

Ella nodded. ‘I was hoping you could.’

‘How are things? We haven’t talked in a while.’

‘Well, Aneka’s off world. Aside from that it’s business as usual. The education programmes on Old Earth seem to be going well. How about here?’

‘The mole is doing a good job of keeping awareness of the problem down, but the Navy is still pushing for greater activity in the areas being attacked.’

‘Are they going to get it?’

‘Yes, which is worrying.’

Ella frowned. ‘Why?’

‘Because those areas are all well away from the Herosian border. Goodnight, Ella.’

The brunette picked up her pace and Ella let her pull away, watching Winter’s back as she left.

Farrington’s World, 8.9.528 FSC.

Aneka watched her diagnostics scroll past in-vision, mostly because she always did, but also because it gave her longer before she opened her eyes and discovered that Ella was not in bed with her.

Not that there was any room for the little redhead in the cot. Not that the lack of space would have stopped them from being in bed together anyway. Aneka smiled. Ella could always make her smile, even at a distance of ninety-six parsecs. Opening her eyes, Aneka slipped out of bed and reached for her clothes.

Monkey was sitting in the mess with his feet on the table. Aneka grinned at him. ‘You can go to bed now if you want,’ she said.

‘Thanks.’ He lifted his feet down and turned off the tablet he was reading. ‘I sent Delta to bed an hour ago. Her yawning was getting to me.’

‘Huh. Anyone else up?’

‘Primly. He never went to bed. He’s in the ops room working on the data from the seismometers.’

‘Probably fallen asleep at the console. I’ll go check on him.’

‘Great.’ Monkey got to his feet and started past Aneka. ‘Coffee’s fresh.’

Aneka poured herself a mug of coffee and took a pull on it, and then headed through into the operations room. Primly was bent over one of the tables, just as Aneka had predicted, but she frowned as soon as she saw him. His infrared signature was too low.

‘Al…?’

‘Interfacing to his bio-monitor… He’s dead. Termination of vital functions occurred twelve hundred and sixteen seconds ago. There is no possibility of recovery.’

‘Shit.’ Stepping forward, Aneka lifted Primly up to check his pulse out of habit. There was foam around his mouth. ‘Al, check the atmospheric processor records for this room for the last hour.’ She turned the chair and checked over the rest of him. That was when she found the burns on his hands. Third degree, deep tissue burns with bone showing through in places.

‘There was a rise in hydrogen sulphide levels around the time of his death,’ Al announced. ‘The detected concentration was only fifty-two parts per million over a one-minute interval. Nowhere near a lethal dose. There was also a one-degree rise in room temperature.’

Frowning, Aneka looked around. The aluminium decking they had put in to keep people’s feet off the more delicate surface below was distorted in a couple of places, as though by extreme heat, and she followed the trail under the table. There was a hole drilled through the base of the cabin and the metal, near the wall.

‘Does the shape of that remind you of anything?’

A schematic image of the hole Aneka had found while placing the seismometers overlaid the view she was looking at. It was different, but very similar. ‘I would not classify it as a one hundred per cent match,’ Al said, ‘but the coincidence is rather more extreme than I would like.’

‘Damn. Aneka to David.’

There was a pause and then, ‘Aneka? I was just about to get into bed.’

‘Sorry. Wake Delta and get your clothes back on. We have a problem.’

~~~

‘I-I’m not a pathologist,’ Rice said, ‘but I’m p-pretty sure. Pulmonary oedema combined with shock from the burns. It…’ She paused to swallow hard. ‘It’s consistent with inhalation of a massive amount of hydrogen sulphide.’

‘But there was no massive dose!’ Adams roared. He had been growing increasingly red in the face as the discussion went on. Aneka was starting to lose patience with him. ‘We found evidence of a fire in one of the computers. He saw it, panicked, got burned, and died. An accident. We cannot pull out because of an accident.’

Strike the ‘losing.’ Reaching out, Aneka grabbed the front of Adams’ jacket with one hand, yanked him toward her, and then lifted him off the ground. ‘A man is dead,’ she said. Grumand grimaced at the level tone of her voice; he had heard that kind of tone used right before someone got their head smashed open. ‘The evidence suggests that he died of hydrogen sulphide poisoning, but you’re right, there does not seem to be evidence of enough of it to kill him. That is an anomaly, a very dangerous one. The fact that his death shows alarming similarity to what killed a lot of the colonists makes it more alarming. I am declaring this area unsafe until I can be assured of everyone’s safety, and if you don’t shut your damn mouth I will put you through a wall. Are we quite clear, Doctor Adams?’ Her hand opened before he could answer and a second later Adams was sprawling on the decking, eyes wide.

‘She assaulted me!’ he shrieked. ‘You all saw it. I’m the leader of this expedition and…’

‘No,’ Grumand snapped. Adams looked at him, his head snapping around as though he had heard a gunshot. ‘You are the lead scientist here. When it comes to expedition safety, there’s Aneka, and then there’s Vashma, and you don’t even rate a vote. Especially when I agree with her.’

There was a second of silence and then Adams’ face darkened and he opened his mouth. Indaia got in first. ‘Excuse me, but there is something else I think you should see.’ Everyone turned to look at her. Throughout the examination of Primly’s body and the argument, she had been quietly examining the functioning computers. ‘My sensor equipment appears to be non-functional,’ she went on when she had everyone’s attention. ‘However, prior to the shutdown, which occurred just before Mister Primly’s death, the system was detecting subsonic activity.’

‘It’s supposed to detect subsonic activity,’ Adams snapped. Aneka suppressed the urge to hit him.

‘Not when it does not generate the pulse. Your seismometers were also detecting slight tremors, and they continue to do so. These disturbances are not the normal shifting of the nearby faults. There is too much regularity, and there are no points of focus.’ She paused; if Aneka did not think Torem were capable of it, she would have thought it was for dramatic effect. ‘It is rather as if the entire area beneath us is coming alive.’

‘Perhaps it was for dramatic effect,’ Al suggested.

Adams’ response was immediate, and predictable. ‘That’s impossible.’

‘It is not impossible,’ Indaia replied calmly, ‘because it is happening.’ She turned her attention to Aneka. ‘I believe it would be in our best interests to examine my equipment prior to leaving the area in as expedient a manner as possible.’

Aneka pulled one of her pistols and made a show of checking the magazine. It was entirely unnecessary, but it stopped anything Adams might have said. ‘David, Delta, everyone has ten minutes to get their stuff together, then you take them to the shuttle. If Doctor Adams resists, stun him. Lieutenant Grumand, would you please arm yourself and come with Indaia and me?’

‘It would be my pleasure.’

‘But…’ Adams began.

Aneka slammed her pistol back into its holster. ‘We can monitor the instruments from orbit, Doctor, but I’m not endangering more people unnecessarily. End of discussion.’

~~~

They could see smoke rising before they got to the site where Indaia’s machine had been set up. It was thin, but it was still there, which seemed to indicate that something bad had happened.

‘The underground subsonic activity appears to have reduced in intensity,’ Al said as they moved closer. ‘It has not, however, stopped. The pattern corresponds to no known faults, and the form is extremely unusual for an earthquake swarm.’

‘Yeah… Jansen to Rice. Are you there, Lidia?’

‘Uh, yeah. We’re on our way to the shuttle now.’

‘Good. Is it possible for something to be living in the magma under the ground?’

‘No, of course not. You’re talking about something that could survive in temperatures of over a thousand Kelvin! Not even… Oh.’

Aneka frowned. ‘Lidia?’

‘Well, it’s theory, no one’s ever discovered an actual example, but silicon has some of the same chemical properties as carbon. Polymerised with oxygen or carbon it can form long chains that could be a basis for a living organism. But it’s highly unlikely that such a creature could exist for long outside a very high-temperature environment.’

They could see the large drum of the emitter now. Smoke was rising from holes in the sides, but Aneka was more concerned about the lumps of rock that were scattered around the area, all of them around ten centimetres in length and shaped like worms. They had not been there when they had set up the equipment, but they looked like the rocks Aneka had seen in the stairwell and her thermal overlay was reading them as hot.

‘Stop,’ she said aloud. Indaia and Grumand came to an immediate halt. Indaia looked toward Aneka questioningly, but Grumand lifted his carbine, scanning around for a threat. Aneka lifted one of her own pistols, using the sighting system to zoom in on the area around the emitter. There were dozens of holes in the ground, all of them punched up from below like the one in the lava and the base of their shelter.

‘Aneka?’ Lidia’s voice sounded concerned over the radio.

‘We’re on our way back,’ Aneka replied, and then she added, ‘I’ve seen enough, we’re leaving,’ out loud.

‘I do not understand,’ Indaia said. She actually managed to look a little perplexed.

‘You see those rocks on the ground around your equipment? The ones that look like worms? I think they are worms, of a sort. Some sort of silicon life form…’

‘The infrasound,’ Indaia said, her eyes widening. ‘Something like that would have no eyes, and infrared sensing would be out of the question, but magnetism and sound… My device attracted them.’

‘They’re obviously dangerous. They’re still hot and they must have been dead for an hour or more. We need to get back to the shuttle. Now.’

‘No argument here,’ Grumand stated, turning on his heel.

~~~

‘Okay,’ Aneka said, ‘so the lava plug in the mining office building starts to make some sense.’ They were back in the shuttle with the hatches sealed and she felt safe enough to take stock before lifting off.

Rice nodded. She was examining the video from Aneka’s memory showing the hot rocks that had once been searing hot worms able to melt through aluminium plate. ‘The ground would have been hotter with magma from the eruptions closer to the surface. The magma worms swarmed and burst through into the buildings. It’s quite possible that they live off sulphur compounds in the rocks, so they could use some sort of hydrogen sulphide jet as a defence mechanism. That’s what killed Mark.’

‘They couldn’t have caused the eruptions, could they?’ Bicks asked. ‘I mean, if they’re attracted to sound, maybe the smelting plants attracted a lot of them…’

‘Too small,’ Adams replied. ‘It would require millions of them. Billions! Shouldn’t we be leaving?’

‘You wanted to stay a quarter of an hour ago,’ Aneka reminded him, but she started toward the cockpit anyway.

‘That was before we had proof that this planet is infested with poisonous alien worms.’

‘Garnet Hyde to Ground Team. Come in, Ground Team.’ Drake’s voice over the speakers sounded urgent and Aneka grimaced.

What now? ‘Aneka here, Drake. What…?’

‘We have a vessel approaching. Military. We detected a drop ship leaving it about thirty seconds ago. Aneka, they’re…’ The connection dissolved into static and Aneka bolted toward the cockpit.

‘Everyone get strapped in,’ she yelled over her shoulder. ‘David, get on sensors and see if you can detect anything.’ She dropped into the pilot’s seat and began powering up the flight systems.

Grumand appeared behind her. ‘Pirates?’ he suggested.

‘What would pirates be doing out here?’

‘Looking for an easy meal ticket? Maybe they use this place as somewhere to hole up.’

‘Wouldn’t we have seen some sign of occupation? Doesn’t matter. I’m more worried about why the Hyde went silent.’

‘I’m picking up a lot of noise,’ Monkey said from the sensor console. ‘I think someone’s jamming the radio. So far no sign of anything dropping out of orbit.’

Aneka engaged the antigravity system and pushed the ship upward a few metres. A touch raised the landing gear and she fired up the main engines, blasting them forward at full throttle, though the inertial compensation took most of the bite out of it.

‘Aren’t you a little low?’ Grumand said.

‘There’s not much ground clutter to help, but if I stay low they may not detect us so easily. I have a few advantages when it comes to low-altitude flying.’ In-vision she could see the view from four forward-looking cameras, which gave her an unobstructed view of where the hull was in relation to the ground.

‘They’ll detect the exhaust from those engines quickly enough.’

‘Not where we’re going.’

‘And where are we going?’

Aneka grinned. ‘Somewhere hot.’

~~~

The only light came from the basic readouts on the consoles and the molten lava outside. They had crossed the terminator into night amid the low peaks of an active volcano arc and Aneka had set the shuttle down in one small area that seemed to be relatively safe, a small hill of old basalt surrounded on all sides by streams of molten rock.

‘I wasn’t picking up anything,’ Monkey said, his voice quiet. ‘Not a thing. Did they follow us?’

‘We don’t know that they had a fix before we left,’ Aneka replied. ‘Whatever it was, it must have had a stealth hull. Isn’t that a little high-tech for pirates?’

Grumand gave a slight shrug, his eyes fixed on the blackness outside. ‘Yes, but it’s not impossible. They usually scavenge whatever they can, refit with more weaponry. They could have got their hands on a military-grade drop ship. It just seems unlikely.’

‘Everything’s quiet back there,’ Delta said as she appeared from the back. ‘The outside temperature isn’t good though.’

‘We should be okay in here,’ Aneka replied. ‘Don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on going out.’

‘I hadn’t planned to.’ Her gaze swept out over the glowing landscape. ‘You think this’ll mask us from sensors?’

‘If memory serves, there’s a fairly high metallic content in the lava, and the heat should stop anyone spotting our infrared signature. Hiding isn’t the problem. We need to…’ She stopped, frowning into the darkness. ‘Do you see that?’

Everyone looked in the direction she was looking. ‘I don’t see…’ Grumand began, and then stopped as he spotted the long, slim tendrils of what appeared to be lava rising up from a particularly broad section of flow. They were writhing and twisting like snakes. Big snakes. ‘The big brothers of the worms we saw back at the camp?’ Grumand suggested.

‘Delta, get Lidia up here,’ Aneka said, her voice tense.

The biologist arrived a few seconds later. ‘I saw them out the side window,’ she said, sounding enthusiastic. ‘Aren’t they amazing?’

‘Amazing, yeah,’ Aneka replied. ‘If they decide to pay us a visit they may not be so amazing.’

‘I don’t think they will. The smaller ones seem to be able to move away from the lava more. We’ve seen no evidence of the big ones until now, and they’re sticking to the flows. Maybe they need to keep their internal temperature higher or something. I wish I could scan them to figure it out.’

‘Sorry. If we use active sensors…’

‘Yeah… I figured that would be the case. If we get out of this alive I swear I’ll push to get another team out here with equipment to study them.’

‘I might even agree to bring you.’

‘Huh, thanks. So how do we get out of here?’

‘For now, we wait. And hope the Hyde isn’t orbiting debris.’

9.9.528 FSC.

‘The ship’s sensors are detecting a tight-beam laser emission,’ Al said. ‘A modulated one.’

Aneka leaned forward and tapped at her console. ‘Jansen to Garnet Hyde. You still in one piece?’ She was alone in the cockpit having sent everyone else back to get some rest.

‘Yes,’ Drake’s voice responded, his voice a little distorted by the transmission medium. ‘We’ve Aggy to thank for that, and some very stupid Herosians.’

‘Herosians?’

‘Yeah. We can discuss that later. It’s taken us a few hours to find you. Luckily that drop ship is still hunting. They’re about twenty clicks north of your position. If you lift off they’ll blow you out of the air.’

Aneka frowned. ‘What’s their search pattern?’

‘It looks like they’re moving closer with each sweep. Someone figured out you hid among the nearest volcanos. Well I did and some Herosians are brighter than others. You’re just lucky we spotted you first.’

‘Any idea how long before they get here?’

‘From their flight pattern… an hour, tops.’

‘Okay, well they’re probably looking for me, not the shuttle as such…’

‘Aneka…?’

‘Let’s just hope they want me alive,’ Aneka continued and then cut off the channel.

~~~

‘You’re insane!’ Adams exclaimed. ‘It’s over ninety out there. I realise you aren’t Jenlay, but even you can’t survive long in that. And there are lava streams all around us!’

‘I’ve got it covered,’ Aneka replied calmly as she checked over her rifle.

‘He’s right, you know?’ Grumand said. ‘A survival suit isn’t going to help if you fall into that stuff, and there’s no way you can get across it…’

‘Really,’ Aneka said, ‘I have it covered.’ As she spoke, something like glistening, black tar was spreading out from the collar of her leotard. ‘If I’m not back in an hour, you fly this thing up to the Hyde and you get the fuck out of here.’ The black fluid covered her mouth and started up her cheeks as she turned toward one of the airlocks. Speaking was now out of the question.

Grumand turned to Monkey. ‘What in Vashma’s name is that?’

Monkey shrugged. ‘New one on me. That’s Aneka, full of surprises.’

‘Are you sure we can clear the lava stream?’ Al asked as they waited for the airlock to seal and cycle.

‘Pretty sure.’

‘That is not entirely convincing.’

‘With the nanosuit enhancing my own muscles, we can jump a helluva distance. We’ve practised this…’

‘Yes, practice. This is a rather extreme way to test that your skills are up to spec.’

The outer door opened and the suit’s sensors immediately registered the heat. Ninety-two Celsius, way above Aneka’s normal operating parameters, but well within the range the suit could handle. The oxygen level was another matter. She could breathe, but it was like operating in a thin atmosphere, and the hydrogen sulphide levels were lethal.

‘Can you think of another way to get them off our backs?’

‘As you well know, strategy and tactics are your department,’ Al commented, a little sourly.

‘Yeah… Well, here goes nothing…’ She started forward, picking up the pace as she accelerated into a dead run toward the narrowest section of lava she could see. Her own artificial muscles were enhanced by the overlay of living metal, and the combined force gave her a speed she could not hope to match normally. She spotted a rock jutting up near the edge of the stream, diverted her course slightly to aim for it, planted her foot, and took off.

Inside the shuttle there was a communal gasp. And then Garlan said, ‘Vashma’s tits, she cleared it!’

‘I would be grateful, Mister Garlan,’ Indaia said, ‘if you would refrain from taking Vashma’s name in vain.’ Garlan glanced at her, his cheeks colouring. ‘However,’ the Torem went on, ‘I concur with the sentiment and I think you can be forgiven. Just this once.’

Wisely, Garlan kept his mouth shut.

~~~

Aneka recognised the stubby bulk of a Hachadim gunship even through the smoky atmosphere as it glided toward her. The throb of its main engines, active even though they could not have been using them, was almost drowned out by the rumble of nearby volcanic activity. She had stopped where she was because the lava flows ahead of her were too wide to jump, even with her suit, but it had not been long before the ship came into view.

Lifting her rifle, she sighted through the scope and fired off three rounds in rapid succession. The aim was not to bring the craft down, that was asking too much of even a souped-up, hyper-velocity, Xinti-tech sniper rifle, but she was still quite amazed when it looked as though all three rounds had penetrated the hull. Apparently she had done some damage too since the vessel twisted sideways, bringing one of its side turrets around so that it could line up on any visible target, and then dropped toward the ground, rear hatch opening as it did so. Humanoid shapes were visible in the light within the ship; they were sending out an assault team.

The throb of the twin fusion torches was stronger now and she could feel it through the ground as the ship touched down. She lined up on one of the figures running down the ramp. Three rounds ripped through the man’s armoured suit like red hot needles and he went down. The remaining four, still not quite sure where the fire was coming from, started in her direction as fast as they could. Another of them, and they were all Herosians from the leg structure, fell before they had gone more than three metres.

The throb of the engines had shifted in pitch, becoming more of a subsonic rumble. Laser beams sizzled through the air as the remaining three Herosians fired wildly in the hopes of hitting something. Aneka’s suit’s camouflage system was obviously working well in the thick atmosphere. She lined up on another Herosian… And then the world shifted.

Aneka steadied herself against a rock as the rumbling around her grew louder. ‘What the Hell is that?!’ she asked silently. Two of the three Herosians were sprawled on the ground, though one had managed to keep his footing.

‘I do not know,’ Al replied, ‘but look at your infrared readings. The area around the gunship is showing a significant temperature increase.’

Her vision was not calibrated to show actual temperature, but Al was right; the area under the Hachadim was showing as a brighter red than it had been. There were brighter spots as well, points where the ground was getting very hot. As she watched, one of those seemed to burst, like a boil opening up, and several of the small magma worms erupted out onto the surface. Almost immediately they began to wriggle away toward the lava flows down the slope. They ignored the men, even when their path took them close by, and they moved with a lot more speed than Aneka would have expected. They almost looked scared…

‘We’re leaving,’ Aneka said. She slung her rifle, bolted to her feet, and started running for the river of molten rock she had crossed to get to this island. She saw a laser beam burn through the air on her right, arcing toward her, and her suit registered the hit, but she felt nothing. And then she was airborne, flying over the lava stream as a sound like the world splitting open began roaring in her ears.

Landing, she rolled and regained her feet, looking back toward the gunship. It was not there. At first she thought a volcano had erupted under it, but the plume of lava was not acting like the other streams she could see. This reached into the sky, a glowing, red-orange column that twisted and writhed the way the longer worms had done, except that this was thirty metres in height and almost twenty across…

‘No fucking way,’ Aneka said.

The giant, silicon beast twisted around once more, and then dropped back into the hole it had come from. A few seconds later Aneka could see the temperature rising above the crater, the first signs of lava rising from the pit. Pretty soon it would overflow and the island would just be another part of the volcano chain.

Turning, Aneka started running. ‘I’ve changed my mind about bringing Lidia back here,’ she said.

‘A wise decision,’ Al replied. ‘I think that putting this world on the quarantine list would be a better idea.’

‘Once she sees the video of that thing, I think even she will agree.’

~~~

It took five minutes for the airlock to clean out the external air and cool Aneka’s suit to the point where it could be retracted without causing damage to her skin. It felt like the longest five minutes ever.

‘You found them?’ Monkey asked as she stepped into the main cabin in her more usual leotard.

‘I found them,’ Aneka replied, and turned immediately for the cockpit.

‘I take it you took care of them?’

‘I put a few holes in their ship and killed two of them. Now we’re getting out of here.’

‘Won’t they come after us?’ Delta asked. ‘That doesn’t sound like all of them.’

Aneka dropped into the pilot’s seat and began powering up the antigravity and thruster systems. Not the main drive. The main drive was not getting turned on until they were far higher. ‘They will not be coming after us. I’m sending the video to the ship’s computers. Lidia, you’re going to want to see this.’ Taking it as smoothly as she could, Aneka lifted the shuttle upward into the black sky. ‘We were seriously lucky that it was just the little worms Indaia’s emitter attracted.’

At two hundred metres Aneka retracted the landing gear and cut in the main engines. As the whine of the fusion torches filled her ears she heard Rice from the rear cabin.

‘No fucking way!’

‘I think she’s going to agree,’ Al commented dryly.

EML4 Ship Construction Facility, Old Earth, 10.9.528 FSC.

‘Titan Transport Zero-Three to EML-Four, requesting clearance for docking.’ The voice came over the speakers in the space station’s control room and a bored operator turned to check his sensor displays.

Answering did not require any movement; his implant actioned the opening of the channel by remote just before he spoke. ‘EML-Four Control to transport. You are cleared for hangar bay two. Any trouble on the way down?’

‘Not a damn thing.’ The transport’s communications officer sounded disappointed and the operator was just about to reply when he spotted a second blip on the sensor display. He was damn sure it had not been there a second ago…

‘Transport Zero-Three, you have an unidentified contact bearing one-eight-nine by one-seven-six, range two thousand. Speed is two-oh-seven-K, accelerating, two G. Vector is… intercepting.’

‘Acknowledged, Control.’ The voice had gone flat, calm, even cold. It belonged to an Enforcer… No, they were calling them Guardians now, but whatever they were called, the owner of that voice had gone out there for precisely this reason. The controller watched as the speeding vessel closed on the apparently unprotected transport, saw the smaller vessel reorient toward its attacker, and then the emission detection system registered the sudden burst from the transport’s bow.

Out in space it appeared as though the transport had been hit. The plating over the bow exploded as two gamma-ray laser weapons that ran the length of the hull fired together. The incoming frigate’s bow armour buckled and there was outgassing visible as sections depressurised. Apparently taken entirely by surprise, which had been the whole point, the frigate shifted course. Turrets around its midsection shifted and fired on the smaller vessel, meeting first a force field and then the hull. There was the flare of light as the graser beams cut into the hyper-dense material, but the little ship had been engineered to take damage as well as hand it out.

It handed out more. The rear section of the frigate lit up brightly on the sensor display as the twin mega-joule lasers burned into it. The powerful drives, twin antimatter torches, sputtered and died, and it drifted on for another few seconds before the entire rear section ripped open like an over-pressurised tin can.

Even inside the station the controller could see the light from the explosion through his suddenly darkening windows. He activated the communications channel. ‘Transport Zero-Three, are you okay? Any damage?’

There was the sound of cheering in the background before the comms officer’s voice came in. ‘We took some damage to one of the habitation sections amidships, but there were no injuries. Damage control is underway. We’re going out to see if there’s anything identifiable in the wreckage.’

‘Acknowledged, Transport Zero-Three. Well done. I’ll let Prime City know of your success immediately. Control out.’

FScV Garnet Hyde, in High Orbit over Farrington’s World.

‘The vessel is a Gadetta class heavy gunship,’ Aggy said from the wall of Drake’s cabin. She was standing next to a slowly rotating, schematic image of the other spacecraft in orbit around Farrington’s World. To be specific, her virtual image, that of a naked, golden-skinned woman with large breasts, honey-blonde hair, and silver eyes, was standing beside the wire-frame model. It took a little getting used to, but once you did you tended to treat Aggy as just another member of the crew, rather than the ship’s AI.

‘The same as the one which attacked…’ Aneka began and then cut herself off. ‘Well, I’ve seen one before.’

‘It is one of the standard Herosian military vessels,’ Aggy replied. ‘Its crew were, however, sloppy.’

‘When they hailed us to demand that we allow them to board the Hyde,’ Drake said, ‘Aggy hacked their computer systems through their own communications channel.’

‘I should point out,’ Aggy said, ‘that I would not have had the time to do so if Captain Drake had not kept them talking. It was a joint effort.’

‘All my blustering would have got us was a laser in the nose if you hadn’t been there to do the hacking.’

Aneka grinned. Neither was going to accept the credit. Drake had been career military, the captain of a frigate, until his ship had been ordered into an impossible situation and he had lost almost his entire crew. He still looked like a naval officer: tough, rugged, with a handsome face capped by hair cut within an inch of its life. His nose had been broken at some point and he had let it set slightly twisted, which just made him look more like an experienced spacer than a punch-drunk boxer. ‘What did you do to them?’ she asked to stop the mutual honour shifting.

‘Closed down their reactor and then opened all the airlocks,’ Aggy replied.

‘Which really showed how inexperienced they were,’ Drake added. ‘We didn’t detect any of them in a full pressure suit when we checked for survivors. You don’t go into combat without your helmet at hand.’

Aneka winced. ‘How many?’

Drake heaved a sigh. ‘They weren’t carrying a full complement, but… two hundred and fifty.’

‘And another ten on the surface. Jesus… two hundred and sixty lives lost just to get to me. Bastards.’ Aneka shifted in her seat.

‘It’s not your fault, Aneka,’ Shannon said. ‘You couldn’t have known they’d do something like this.’ Shannon Patton was Drake’s partner, and the co-pilot of the Hyde. She was short, blonde, big-breasted, and looked a lot like some sort of space bimbo right up until the point you discovered she could fix the Hyde’s warp drive if it broke. She was also a telepath, which was useless against Aneka, but it had made her quite a useful psychologist as well as a rather empathic person. ‘And it was stupid,’ she added.

‘Indeed,’ Aggy agreed. ‘I was able to pull the orders which dispatched that ship here from their computers. They were signed by one of their Admirals.’

‘Right…’ Aneka said, frowning. ‘They really fucked up; I just can’t help but think they’re going to find a way to worm out of this.’

‘It wouldn’t surprise me,’ Drake agreed. ‘What do you want to do?’

‘Send a private message ahead to New Earth. By the time we get back there someone may have come up with a plan. If not… Well, then we turn the heat up on the Herosians.’

Part Two: Fuel

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 29.9.528 FSC.

‘You didn’t feel like waiting?’ Aneka asked, humour in her voice as she walked into the lounge with a naked Ella clinging to her. The lithe redhead had given a small squeak as Aneka entered their apartment, and had then flung herself across the room. Now her long legs were wrapped around Aneka’s waist, and she was showing no sign of letting go.

‘I’m just out of the shower,’ Ella mumbled into Aneka’s neck. ‘I’m due at work in an hour. You’re a day early.’

‘Given what happened, we figured being ahead of schedule might be a useful precaution.’

‘Uh-huh. Well, we can wait until tonight for me to worry over that.’

Aneka frowned. It was not like Ella to leave her worrying until later. ‘What’s happening tonight?’

‘Tonight we’re going to Shin You?’

That was surprising. ‘I figured you’d want me all to yourself tonight.’

‘Well, yeah, I do. But we have all weekend and I was told we were to go as soon as you got back, so tonight it’s Shin You.’

‘You were told, huh? Okay, I guess we can go if you were told…’

Ella giggled. ‘It’s not going to be an entirely normal evening there anyway.’

Aneka laughed. ‘Sure, we’re not going to get humped by dozens of men until quite late.’

~~~

Shin You was exactly the sort of place that could not have existed in the world Aneka had come from, and which she would not have gone anywhere near if it had. The throbbing music was reminiscent of a dance club and there was dancing going on, but only as a prelude to other forms of rhythmic movement. Shin You was the only club in Yorkbridge devoted to sex pure and simple.

As far as Aneka was concerned, that said two things. The one which most Jenlay pointed out was that Shin You demonstrated just how liberal Jenlay society was, and how safe. This was a club where people went to have sex with total strangers. A lot of total strangers in fairly rapid succession usually, in total safety and without any form of social censure. And that was true as far as it went, but what Aneka noticed was that Shin You was the only club of its type on New Earth. The Jenlay liked the place to show their tolerant attitude to all tastes, but the majority of them were not prepared to actually go there.

Aneka only enjoyed herself there because Ella did. Sure, Jenlay were generally pretty good at making sex an enjoyable experience, and the patrons of Shin You got more practice than most. Sure, the atmosphere was kind of fun. She actually figured the more conservative Jenlay would enjoy the atmosphere, which was carefree and fun-loving, as well as sexually charged. Not erotic. Not to Aneka’s mind anyway. Eroticism needed something Shin You lacked: a sense of mystery.

There were couples, threesomes, foursomes, and some piles of bodies and limbs on all sides as Aneka and Ella walked through from the entrance toward the dance floor. A few were naked; most were dressed in some form of clothing which did not limit access to the body beneath unduly. Aneka and Ella were appropriately dressed in micro-skirts and cropped tops, giving unrestricted access to groping hands, though to be fair Aneka had had worse experiences in Japanese nightclubs. No one bothered you in Shin You until you wanted to be bothered, and they were not looking like they wanted to be bothered just yet.

‘Do you see her?’ Ella asked, though her lips did not move. The voice came over an interlink between Ella’s computer implant and Aneka’s brain. It let them talk without talking, and it certainly saved overstressing the vocal cords.

‘Not yet,’ Aneka replied. ‘She’ll be in the back somewhere, past the dance floor.’

‘You mean, in the back where the heaviest stuff goes on?’

‘Yeah, but it’s a little darker and the people back there have taken more drugs. None of them are going to be paying anyone much attention aside from themselves and the person they’re fucking.’

‘True.’

The drugs were not illegal, and they did not make you high, but they did tend to increase your focus, the sensitivity of your nerves, and your libido, while decreasing your inhibitions. Aneka was unsure why any of the patrons needed the last two. Maybe some people came to the club because they felt they wanted to but did not quite have the nerve for it once they got there.

Something about the throb of the music made you horny anyway. It had some effect on Aneka, but not much. It always seemed to work exceptionally well on Jenlay, especially the women. Ella had said something about resonance effects on the clitoral tissues, but whatever it was, it tended to result in a fair amount of squirming after about ten minutes in the building.

Aneka spotted crimson hair moving through the body piles and flagged the location through to Ella. The couple moved in perfect synchronisation toward the woman in the translucent red swimsuit and red, thigh-high boots. The woman glanced in their direction, flicked her hair, and moved away from them, deeper into the room where the light was a dull red and visibility was restricted to only a metre or so for most people. Aneka could see perfectly well, and Ella’s cybernetic eyes were better in the dark than natural ones would have been. They followed the woman through the islands of cushions until she lowered herself onto an almost empty one. Then they lay down on either side of her, hands sliding up her body, faces close to hers.

Of course, the closeness just facilitated conversation. ‘Secretive meetings should always be conducted like this,’ Winter said, a smile tugging at her lips.

‘I admit it has a certain weird something,’ Aneka replied, ‘but pretty soon Ella’s going to be swallowing your tongue, so you’d best talk fast.’

Winter gave a slight nod of acknowledgement. ‘Your report on the Herosian assault on Farrington’s World was received by the Administration. Dowler would have had a significantly easier time dismissing it if it were not for the data Aggy retrieved from their computers.’

‘That was why we sent it.’

‘Yes. It worked. Elroy and Ollander are both on Obati Four screaming at the tops of their lungs and the Herosians are trying their best to manufacture reasons why it was not some government conspiracy. This Rear Admiral Sh’Shanis, not a man noted for his tolerance actually, has had a psychotic break according to the latest reports. They are trying to hunt him down to bring him to justice.’

‘With no luck, I assume?’ Someone was sliding a hand up Aneka’s right thigh. She ignored it.

‘Such a surprise.’ Winter’s eyes twitched. Ella was kissing her neck in what appeared to be quite a distracting manner. ‘I’ll keep monitoring, but you’ve lit a fire under the Herosians. They were not expecting you to leave that planet in one piece, let alone bring back evidence they would need to counter. They won’t come at you directly, that would just cause a bigger political incident, but they might try something. Your partner really knows what she’s doing, doesn’t she?’

The hand on Aneka’s leg had moved, sliding between her thighs. She figured she had a couple of seconds before the owner took her lack of reaction as an invitation. ‘She’s exceptionally good, yes. I heard about the problems back on New Earth. You got the warning through?’

‘I did. I’ve had no reply, but there have been reports that the attacks there have stopped. They had a plan to deal with the problem, and it apparently worked. They destroyed the “pirate” vessel which was attacking their shipping.’

‘Destroyed it, that’s a…’ She stopped as two fingers slid into her. The invitation had been accepted. ‘That’s a shame. Our neighbours have noticed us.’

‘And Ella’s hands are getting very insistent. I’ve nothing else to report. You?’ Aneka shook her head. The probing fingers were starting to stroke quite firmly. ‘In that case I think we should get on with enjoying our cover story.’

Aneka shifted her thigh to give her unknown partner easier access. ‘I don’t think we’ve much choice,’ she said softly.

30.9.528 FSC.

Aneka looked back at the bed where the two redheads were still asleep. Winter’s body was manufactured to be sexy, exotic, voluptuous, but Aneka thought her own little redhead looked better.

Ella was on her back. Aneka had warned her that getting her breasts enhanced would mean sleeping on her stomach was never going to happen again. Her pale skin never held a tan; now it was a marked contrast to the black of the Nusilk sheet she was lying on. Her red hair had grown out a little in the last year and it lay in a pool of red strands across the pillow. In sleep her face was still and a little solemn, but when she smiled her green eyes lit up and she made the world a better place.

Grinning, Aneka left the room and walked across the lounge to the bathroom. A shower was going to do her good. She had her hand on the controls when the apartment’s computer spoke.

‘Three members of the Federal Security Agency are requesting admission.’ Aneka glared at the ceiling. Really the voice was far too monotonous for an announcement like that.

‘I should get you replaced with an AI,’ Aneka commented. ‘I would if it wasn’t illegal. Let them in. Instruct them to come up.’ The computer did not seem to take offence. Turning, Aneka walked back out into the lounge to wait.

It was not long before three men in dark suits entered and came to a grinding halt. Well, she was still naked. ‘Gentlemen,’ Aneka said. ‘Stop standing there like you’ve never seen a naked robot before. This better be important, I have a guest.’

The leader of the trio, a dark-skinned man with very short hair who looked as though he really should have been wearing dark glasses, spoke. ‘Agent Ian Plug. You are Aneka Jansen?’ Aneka tilted her head to one side and looked at him until he coughed and went on. ‘Yes, well… We’ve been ordered to take you to headquarters to discuss the incident on Farrington’s…’

‘Dowler give the order?’ Aneka asked, interrupting him.

‘It came from the Agency head’s office, yes.’

‘Everything was in the report we sent ahead of us. Unless you’re arresting me for something, I’m disinclined to assist in your enquiries. As I said, I have a guest who I am hoping to persuade to stay for the rest of the weekend, mostly in a horizontal position.’ It was a lie, but it did make Plug’s cheeks colour.

‘The Agency has some questions regarding your report,’ Plug tried.

‘You mean Dowler wants to try to figure out how he can stop the Herosians being to blame for what happened.’ Plug looked like he was going to respond to the statement, but Aneka got in first. ‘I’ll consult a legal advisor and come to be interviewed, with legal counsel, if I am advised that it would be in my interests. It’s the weekend, so that will be the day after next. If you want me to go sooner, get a warrant, and good luck with that.’

Plug opened his mouth to speak, but was once again interrupted, this time by a voice from the bedroom. ‘Aneka? Aneka, come back to bed. It’s cold without the extra…’ Winter strutted out of the room, stopping when she saw the three men. ‘Oh! I didn’t know there was anyone else here. Are they staying?’ She put just enough suggestion into her tone for the last sentence that all three men went slightly pink. Then she strode over to Aneka, sliding up against her and wrapping her arms around Aneka’s waist.

‘No,’ Aneka said. ‘These gentlemen were just leaving.’

‘Shame… Though if they’re gentlemen we don’t need them.’

‘We’ll see you on the second, Miss Jansen,’ Plug said, and then he turned to leave as fast as decorum would allow.

‘How much of that did you hear?’ Aneka asked when the door was shut behind the agents.

‘Enough,’ Winter replied, letting go of Aneka and starting for the bathroom. ‘I’ll have an avatar prepared to provide you with counsel, and I’d love to stay for the weekend. The others can pick up the slack. Were you going to take a shower? I’ll join you.’

Aneka shook her head, grinned, and started after her.

FSA Headquarters, High Yorkbridge, 2.10.528 FSC.

Aneka sat at a table in what the Federal Security Agency called an interview room. It was blank and featureless, and there were multispectral cameras monitoring every corner. Aneka ignored them, aside from ensuring that Al was monitoring her body temperature, keeping it entirely flat.

Beside Aneka sat a tall, haughty-looking blonde, Winter’s model number six. Aneka had no idea whether this one had known a thing about Federal law that morning, but she did now. She also, apparently, knew how to play on having a good body. Her dress was short, low cut, and scarlet, and it showed off a moderate cleavage which had been pushed up into something more extreme. She was wearing a serene but very confident expression. A faint smile played over her lips as they waited for someone to talk to them. The fact that she was being so calm about it was helping Aneka maintain her temper.

The door opened and a man walked in, tall, slim, not heavily muscled or particularly unfit. He looked like he worked behind a desk a lot. His suit was immaculate, his hair cut by someone who had made a profession of conservative, business-like hairstyles. Aneka decided she did not like him almost immediately; like no other agent she had ever seen, this guy smelled of spook.

‘Good Morning, Miss Jansen and Miss…?’

‘Kilbride,’ Winter responded, ‘Jean Kilbride. I am Miss Jansen’s legal advisor in this matter.’

‘Agent Wilcox,’ the man said, sitting down. ‘Miss Jansen needs a legal advisor?’

‘Given that the Federal Security Agency has made a habit recently of victimising anyone with prior association to its assassinated head, we can infer that this is another example of the same. Miss Jansen has nothing to hide.’

‘I’m sure she hasn’t.’ Wilcox leaned back, raising the tablet he had brought with him and looking at it. He was trying to put them at their ease. More specifically he was trying to put Aneka at her ease and hoping she would slip. ‘Except that you did fire on the Herosian vessel without provocation, Miss Jansen.’

Aneka waited a second to see whether Winter would interrupt, and then spoke. ‘We got a message from the Garnet Hyde stating that they were being approached by a military vessel. Then their communications were jammed. When they could get through to us via tight-beam communicator, they told us that the gunship was searching for us. I considered that a threat situation.’

‘You didn’t consider the possibility that they might be there on a rescue mission?’

Aneka looked at him, but he genuinely seemed to want an answer. ‘Rescue missions typically involve heavy gunships and jamming communications across an entire planetary hemisphere?’

‘No,’ Wilcox admitted, ‘they generally don’t. Do you know why this team came after you?’

‘No.’ Of course she could make guesses, but even the orders had not given a reason for the mission. ‘The orders our AI extracted gave no reason. I actually regret having to kill the crew. The order looked genuine, though I’m not an expert in Herosian military protocols. They were ordered to go there and grab me, and leave no witnesses.’ She frowned. ‘Actually, someone pretty intelligent once told me that “I was just following orders” isn’t a valid excuse. These guys took a mission into Jenlay territory, without question, to kidnap one citizen and murder several others. I don’t regret a thing.’

‘Not an attitude we see in many Jenlay, Miss Jansen.’

‘I’m not a Jenlay, Agent Wilcox. I’m just classified as one for administrative purposes.’

‘Is there anything else you wanted to discuss, Agent?’ Winter asked.

Wilcox glanced at his tablet. ‘Agent Wilcox is receiving direction from an external source via the tablet,’ Al said.

‘Tell me you aren’t hacking their communications,’ Aneka replied.

‘All right, I am not hacking their communications. I am, however, quite capable of decrypting the relatively low-grade encryption used on their internal messaging protocols, and radio is a broadcast medium.’

‘So who’s he getting his direction from?’

‘One guess.’

Wilcox’s eyes twitched as he looked at the screen in his hand. He was not pleased with what he was reading. ‘You seem to have something of a prejudice against Herosians?’ he said anyway.

Aneka was about to speak when Winter put a hand on her arm. ‘You have Miss Jansen’s psychological profile, Agent Wilcox,’ Winter said. ‘The only thing she is prejudiced against is the Xinti who kidnapped her. She saved the life of the Herosian ambassador. You should use your own judgement when questioning someone and not take direction from a politician.’

Wilcox thumbed over the tablet and put it down on the table. ‘I think I’ve heard enough. Thank you for your time, Miss Jansen.’

‘Thank you, Agent Wilcox,’ Aneka said, getting to her feet.

The agent did not look particularly happy as they left. Aneka did not really care about that; ‘just following orders’ was not a valid defence.

~~~

‘Why did you terminate that interview?’ Dowler was glowering as he met Wilcox outside the interview room. ‘I was…’

‘You were trying,’ Wilcox said, ‘to set up a woman with a super-computer for a brain and a damn good lawyer. And the lawyer was right, wasn’t she? You have got some sort of vendetta against Jansen?’ Dowler opened his mouth to respond, but Wilcox was having nothing of it. ‘The next time you pull a stunt like this, sir, I’ll go straight to the Administration about your lack of professionalism.’

Dowler was still glaring as Wilcox stalked away.

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 10.10.528 FSC.

‘I heard about Dowler’s stunt,’ Truelove said. ‘I hope you realise I had nothing to do with that?’ Dinner was over and Winter’s former assistant was sitting in the lounge to chat.

‘Yeah,’ Aneka said, grinning as she brought over a tray of drinks. ‘We had figured out that you would have probably stopped him. How did you find out? The way you’re talking it sounds like Dowler was trying to keep you out of the loop.’

‘Wilcox told me. Yesterday, admittedly. He took his time, but he told me. He maybe thought I’d be unreceptive, considering that he was in charge of the interrogations after Winter’s assassination.’

‘Huh, yeah. He wasn’t on your favourite people list.’

‘No,’ Truelove replied, ‘though I heard he was pretty unhappy about the mass arrest. I’ve also heard a rumour that he’s looking closely at Dowler. Wilcox is Internal Affairs, so…’

‘So he shouldn’t have been interrogating Aneka the other day,’ Ella pointed out.

‘No, he shouldn’t have.’

‘And he needs to stop looking at Dowler,’ Aneka said.

Truelove frowned. ‘I’d have thought you’d be pleased about someone else looking into Dowler’s activities.’

‘I’m just not keen on having to show off that armour you didn’t see while rescuing Wilcox from a hit.’ Her lips twitched. ‘I don’t like him that much.’

‘You think they’d try to kill him over this?’

‘They tried to kill you didn’t they?’ Ella said.

Truelove nodded slowly and looked over at the fourth person in the room, Justine Nivalis, her bodyguard. Aneka and Ella knew that Justine was a slightly special one of Winter’s avatars, but Truelove did not.

‘They have a point,’ Justine said. ‘Wilcox may not be the best agent we have, but it would be a shame to lose him. Our mysterious assailants…’

‘Do we really have to use euphemisms for them?’ Ella asked. ‘We all know who they are. They sent a gunship to try to get Aneka on Farrington’s World.’

Justine smiled at her. ‘If we get into the habit of saying who they are at home, we might slip at work. We have no evidence anyone is acknowledging that identified them. Farrington’s World is being blamed on a rogue naval officer.’

‘Of course, nothing’s gone past me to indicate that the Agency is looking for him,’ Truelove said. ‘If the Herosians are actually looking for him… Well, I’m an analyst and I think it’s pretty unlikely.’

‘Anyway,’ Justine went on, ‘we know that these unnamed bad guys have a habit of eliminating threats. If Wilcox becomes one then their course of action is obvious.’

‘It won’t be though,’ Aneka said. ‘They can’t risk a direct assassination or a simulated mugging. This would really have to look like an accident.’ She paused. ‘That can’t be easy to engineer these days. Everything’s so safe. Everything is monitored by computers, and if they messed with the computers someone would be able to figure that out.’

‘That’s true. I’ll mention it to Sharissa. It’s her job to come up with threat assessments.’

‘This,’ Ella said, ‘is a morbid topic of conversation.’

‘Yeah, that’s true,’ Truelove replied, ‘but what do we have to talk about besides work?’

Ella giggled. ‘I don’t know. How about… have you managed to entrap Justine into bed yet?’

Truelove blushed, but Justine said, ‘I entrapped her. I like to work closely with those I’m guarding.’

Aneka smirked. ‘Someone could attack her while she’s in bed.’

‘I had never thought of it like that,’ Ella mused. ‘I mean, if they did you would lose valuable seconds getting from one room to the next.’

‘Aneka’s obviously been training you in tactics,’ Justine suggested. ‘That is exactly how I explained it to Elaine.’

Truelove shrugged. ‘I didn’t buy it for a second, but I’m not going to pass up the sex, I’m a Jenlay.’

Downtown Yorkbridge, 11.10.528 FSC.

Darren Wilcox watched the black-haired woman sitting beside him sip her wine and tried to work out how he had managed to get so lucky. She grinned at him and said, ‘What?’

‘Uh… nothing,’ he replied, sipping from his own glass. ‘I was just… admiring the view.’

She had a pretty blush. She had a pretty face. No, a beautiful face. She was slim, petite, with the kind of narrow, angular facial set he had always found attractive. Her legs were long; her black hair fell over moderately large breasts, which were barely concealed by her dress that was made up of many thin strips of metallic, silver bioplastic. She looked like a woman who had gone out at the end of the weekend to find a sleeping partner, and somehow she had picked him.

‘You know,’ she said, ‘I’m not really that fond of bars.’

‘You’re not?’

‘They’re noisy. No privacy.’

‘You’d prefer to go somewhere else?’

She looked down, timidly, almost submissively. ‘There’s a hotel about two blocks south of here…’

Wilcox sank the rest of his drink. He was feeling impulsive tonight. Why should he stop himself having a little fun for once?

12.10.528 FSC.

Sharissa’s eyes scanned over the scene critically. It was not a pleasant view. The body lay on the bed where it had fallen, just as the service girl had found it. She was currently in the local hospital being treated for shock. There was less blood than one might have expected, but then a laser drilling through a Jenlay skull tended to cauterise the wound.

Looking up she could see the scorch mark on the ceiling. The beam had been less focussed after burning through Wilcox’s throat, then his skull and brain. He had been sitting up, obviously. The pistol was a service issue, polychromatic, light pistol. A Crawford-Patrick model. Sharissa had no doubt it would be registered to Wilcox.

It looked like a suicide, clean and simple. The problem was that Sharissa could see no reason why Wilcox would have killed himself, or why he had come to the hotel room to do it.

‘Did the scans come up with anything?’ she asked.

The forensics tech was looking at his tablet. He looked bored. ‘Nothing. No one else was here with him. That’s preliminary, obviously. We need to run the data through a full analysis, but we can’t find any genetic material from another party here. The place is clean.’

‘What’s with the reddening of the skin?’

The tech looked down at the body. Wilcox’s face and neck did look red, flushed. ‘Uh… That’s probably blood pressure changes from the beam. That kind of heat causes a lot of fluid expansion in soft tissue like the brain. Brains have a lot of blood vessels and the beam would boil the fluid.’

Sharissa nodded. It made sense, to some extent anyway.

‘I’d like this room cleared. Now.’ The voice came from a man who had just entered the small suite. Tall, well-built, with blonde hair and cold blue eyes, and hard features which Sharissa recognised.

‘Edgerton, what are you doing here?’

‘A senior agent has died under unusual circumstances,’ Edgerton replied. ‘This is an IA matter, Torrence.’

‘Wilcox was a lead investigator in Internal Affairs. Agency policy dictates that investigations into the death of an agent are not investigated by their own department. And policy also says that the death of an agent is a security issue…’

‘Not anymore. This comes right from the top. IA is taking this.’

Sharissa’s eyes narrowed, but she said, ‘Okay. I’ll be personally monitoring the case until I get it back.’

‘Sure, Torrence,’ Edgerton replied as Sharissa walked past him to the door. ‘Good luck with that.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 15.10.528 FSC.

‘I know you were talking to Elaine about Wilcox getting murdered,’ Sharissa said, ‘but there’s really no evidence that it wasn’t a suicide.’

The reason they were discussing the recently deceased agent was that Sharissa and Janna were over for dinner; Janna and Ella were in the kitchen, and Sharissa had mentioned the case. Aneka had looked distinctly dubious.

‘He was found dead in a hotel bedroom by the room service staff,’ Sharissa went on. ‘He was definitely killed by his own pistol. The weapon log indicates that no one else used it, and besides, there was no one else in the room with him.’

Aneka’s eyes narrowed slightly. ‘How do you know he was alone?’

‘They went over the room with scanners. No genetic material from anyone else.’

‘You guys really don’t get many murders in this city, do you?’

‘Huh?’ Sharissa said, looking perplexed.

‘It’s a hotel room. How is it even vaguely possible that the only genetic material in it belongs to Wilcox?’

‘Uh… I hadn’t thought of that, but now you say it…’

‘Okay,’ Aneka said, her tone thoughtful, ‘what else… The laser burned through?’ Sharissa nodded. ‘What shape was the burn on the ceiling?’

‘Uh… Well, a laser burn. A point impact blurred by vapour diffusion.’

‘Short duration?’

Sharissa frowned thoughtfully. ‘No. There was some wobble. It must have been about a one-second burst.’

‘Yeah, when he fired his gun, his body tensed from shock, locking his finger on the trigger for a second, but he would have either shifted back or wobbled. The ceiling track should have been a line… or a spiral. Someone was there, holding him upright. I’m guessing a woman. Someone had to persuade him into a hotel bedroom.’ She looked up for a second. ‘Well, in my day it’d have been a woman, but we’re talking Jenlay…’

‘No, I checked up on him after the inquisition. He’s never been known to have a male partner. It’s not impossible, but it’s unlikely. He must have met her in a bar…’

‘Probably something not too far away. One or two blocks. Walking distance, maybe even short walking distance. A bit of an urgent need to be alone and naked.’

‘IA are already classifying it as a suicide,’ Sharissa said. ‘Stress induced. No further need to investigate.’

‘And you’re going to leave it at that?’

Sharissa grinned. ‘Vashma no!’

‘Okay, but be careful. I do not want to have to look at burn patterns on your ceiling and realise you didn’t commit suicide.’

‘They’d never do that with me.’

‘No?’

‘No one would believe it. First, that would be two high-ranking agents committing suicide in short order, and second…’ She turned to look toward the kitchen where Janna and Ella were giggling. ‘No one would believe it. If someone wanted to kill me they’d hit me on an op.’

‘You’d die when your subject was attacked.’ Aneka glanced at the kitchen. ‘Don’t let that happen either. Janna would never speak to me again.’

22.10.528 FSC.

Ella held up a small, red data card and Aneka looked at it a little suspiciously. ‘A blonde teenager bumped into me on the way home,’ Ella said. ‘She slipped this into my bodice, would you believe, while she was helping me up and apologising a lot.’

‘A teenager we know?’

‘Uh-huh. And it’s red…’

Aneka took the card and headed for the bedroom. Locked in her gun safe, hidden away at the back of one of the wardrobes, was a secure card reader. Despite being quite secure in and of itself, the device had no decryption system built into it; that was handled once the entire package had been uploaded to Aneka’s internal storage. It took her twenty minutes or so to go over the contents once it had been decrypted.

‘Basically,’ Aneka explained, ‘it’s from Justine. Someone claiming to know who killed Winter, and why, has come forward. They say they’re being hunted. They’ll come in, but they only trust Elaine Truelove. Sharissa will be handling the security and extraction.’

‘So it’s a trap,’ Ella said flatly.

‘Well, yeah.’

‘So why are they going to do it?’

‘In case it isn’t a trap, but with the stipulations for the meeting…’

‘Like?’

‘Hand weapons only. No more than three agents besides Sharissa and Elaine. The meeting is to take place in a wooded area about twenty klicks outside the city. Winter sent topographic maps and aerial photographs, and it’s prime ambush territory. It’s a trap.’

Ella’s hands clenched into fists and she bit her lip, worry written all over her face. ‘Can we do anything? And by “we” I obviously mean you.’

Aneka flashed her a grin. ‘Well, Winter’s given me a lot of information…’

22km North-North-East of Yorkbridge, 23.10.528 FSC.

‘TacNet up and running?’ Aneka asked silently.

‘Full tactical network orchestration is engaged,’ Al replied. ‘Data feeds from the passive sensor array are assimilated. I have hacked the communications network the agents are using, and included their bio-monitor feeds in the available data. I have also managed to patch into the air traffic control system for the city and I am monitoring the radar grid for this area. It is possible that Justine has detected my intrusion, but no one else has and she will say nothing.’

‘And your new software…?’

‘Is functioning perfectly. This is not the field trial I had planned for it. Something less critical involving a simple archaeology expedition would have been less of a stress test.’

‘Maybe, but I trust you and it’ll be useful. Give me a display of the area.’

It was not so much a display as an environment. Aneka was sealed away within her nanosuit; even her eyes were covered in a layer of living metal. Since she saw through the ‘eyes’ of the suit’s sensors it was easy enough to replace that with a virtual environment representing a bird’s eye view of the area, in three dimensions, stitched together from multispectral sensor images and manufactured data. It took a second or two to adjust to the sudden shift in perspective, then…

‘This is amazing. I feel like I can see everything. I’m a tactician, not a strategist, but this makes me feel like I could do both.’

‘If it were not for your comprehension speed, the influx of data would be overwhelming,’ Al reminded her. ‘You are rather more capable of handling this sensory load than a normal person would be.’

‘Huh.’

Sharissa, Justine, and Truelove were in a clearing within a large coppice of moderately aged trees. There were two more agents with them, taking up positions just outside the clearing to watch the two main ways in and out, to east and south-west. Aneka’s position was also marked, four metres up a tree on the north side of the clearing. Between her camouflage and the canopy she was invisible to anyone below.

‘Time?’ Aneka asked.

‘It is ten minutes until the appointed rendezvous time. No sign of the informant.’

‘I guess we just have to wait then.’

~~~

Fifteen minutes later they were still waiting and Aneka could tell from the radio traffic that Sharissa was getting restive.

‘Core One to Band Two, anything?’ The blonde’s voice was tense. That was unsurprising.

‘Nothing, Core. Quiet as the grave.’ That was the man on the south-west approach.

‘Band Three?’

‘Nothing. All quiet.’

Aneka frowned. Three was moving as she spoke, shifting from her place on the eastward track to a spot further north.

‘Her pulse and breathing are accelerated,’ Al commented.

‘Have we got a visual of where she is?’

‘Not that specific area.’

‘We give it another five minutes,’ Sharissa said, ‘and then we get out of here.’

‘I think,’ Aneka said, moving smoothly out from the cleft between the two branches she had occupied for the last two hours, ‘that we’ll go take a look at Miss Three. Drop the tactical, but keep monitoring.’ Her vision shifted to the view through her eyes, or the face of her suit anyway, and she located the descender which would drop her silently to the forest floor by way of a monofilament line.

Getting around the woods without making noise meant moving slowly, but the trees were not too close together and she had her suit’s camouflage system. And Three was busy prepping some sort of short-barrelled grenade launcher from a Bi-weave bag when Aneka found her. That took her attention away from her surroundings, which was either an indication of bad training, or that the woman was nervous about what she was up to.

‘Smoke or gas grenades,’ Al said. ‘Designed to incapacitate rather than kill.’

‘Huh.’ Aneka watched as the woman checked her watch and then shifted forward. Something was about to happen.

‘Movement on the north side,’ Al said. ‘They are camouflaged, but the passive sensors have too broad a spectral range.’

‘Movement!’ Two said. ‘I’ve got a lone figure approaching.’

‘Al?’ Aneka asked.

‘Sensors on that side are detecting nothing.’ And that meant someone had got to two of Sharissa’s people.

‘Three? Anything on your side?’

‘Nothing, Core.’ Three lifted to a more upright position and settled her grenade launcher.

Aneka moved, stepping forward to close range, her arms rising. One hand locked under Three’s chin while the other braced on the back of her skull, and then Aneka was swinging all of her weight around a pivot not designed for that kind of stress. There was a wet crunch and Three went limp.

‘It’s a woman,’ Two was saying. Aneka noticed that he had left his position and was moving in toward the clearing.

‘The northern team appears to be four individuals with carbines,’ Al said. ‘They will be in firing positions in ten seconds.’

Aneka bolted for the clearing. ‘Relay the data to Justine. Tell her to get down; the guy on the south side is her problem.’ She pulled her pistols. ‘And pop the smoke.’

‘That will reduce the effectiveness of the sensors.’

‘More important to blind them.’

There was a sequence of small detonations ahead of her and suddenly Aneka was running toward a cloud of white smoke which sparkled and showed up as a shifting, solid mass on her infrared overlay. Hot prismatic smoke; it would mask heat signatures, restrict the view in other frequencies, and reduce the effectiveness of laser weapons firing through it. Aneka burst through the cloud to see her three friends lying on the grass. Justine had a pistol in her hand and was facing the south-west side of the clearing. Sharissa was lying half on Truelove, who was looking displeased at the protective posture.

Not waiting to find out how that potential argument might come out, Aneka swung her pistols around and launched twin firing arcs into the northern side of the clearing. The cloud might make lasers less effective, and make targeting haphazard at best, but suppression fire using thousand-round-a-minute machine pistols had the primary effect of making people duck. Aneka walked forward, her arms swinging in smooth curves as she kept up the firing. She could hear small explosions as the darts from her pistols hit wood, flashed into plasma, and blew chunks out of the trees.

‘I am detecting radio traffic,’ Al said. ‘Attempting to isolate. Movement detected, right, thirty-eight degrees, five metres.’

Aneka shifted Bridget, her right-hand pistol, and fired into the smoke guided by a heads-up display marker which gave an approximate location for her target. Or not so approximate.

‘Target fully visible and down,’ Al said. ‘Movement away from the clearing. One target, left, twelve degrees, twenty metres. The tree density will make that shot impossible.’

‘He’s retreating, ignore him. What about the other two?’

‘Nothing detected. You may have eliminated them with the suppression fire.’

There was the crack of a laser firing, the explosion of gas around the beam as it lanced through the air. Aneka turned to see Two, a surprised look on his face, crumpling to the ground with a hole in his chest. Justine had nailed her target.

Something shifted in Aneka’s peripheral vision and she turned. The camouflage on the men’s suits was good, but the gunman had just emerged from the smoke and it clung around him, sparkling in the light from the lamps in the clearing, and his gun was not so well covered. Having one of them alive might be useful, even if they had had little luck with captured assassins before.

Aneka pushed the carbine upward with Bridget and rammed Clara, her other pistol, up under the man’s chin. She could see him making the decision. Her pistol was right there and his gun was going to be useless in this position, but she had not fired yet which meant she wanted him alive… He started swinging the carbine toward her face and she pulled the trigger. The top of the man’s skull exploded into a sizzling plume of blood, brain, and bone as the machine pistol’s deadly stream of darts punched through.

‘I didn’t want you alive that much, sunbeam,’ she commented silently. ‘What about the last one?’

‘I’ve located another corpse,’ Al replied. ‘It appears that you caught him in the open when you first opened fire.’

Nodding, Aneka slipped her pistols into their holsters and ordered her suit to contract. She turned toward the middle of the clearing, speaking as soon as her mouth was uncovered. ‘Anyone hurt? Aside from the bad guys, obviously.’

Truelove was climbing to her feet. ‘I’m okay, aside from the bruises where Sharissa tackled me.’ She stabbed a finger toward Aneka. ‘You are starting to make a habit of this.’

‘Janna would have beaten me to scrap if I’d let her sexy blonde get killed.’

‘The sexy blonde owes you one,’ Sharissa said. ‘I’d offer my body in payment, but Janna would be pissed she couldn’t join in.’

Aneka rolled her eyes. ‘I assume you managed to find something that marked Wilcox’s death down as murder?’

Sharissa gave a curt nod. ‘I had a full biochem sequence run on his body. It’s not easy to detect, but he had several psychotropics in his system. Inhibition reducers, sensory boosters, and also a sedative. Asking around the clubs we found a bartender who remembered him leaving with a woman about an hour before he died. I’m willing to bet the records of the investigation will be gone when I get back to HQ.’ She smirked. ‘Not that it matters. I’ve got duplicates with me. What happened to my other agent?’

‘Broken neck. She was going to hit you with smoke or gas grenades before the squad attacked. Not like you to let two bad agents on your team.’

‘They were assigned,’ Truelove growled. ‘Recent transfers to New Earth. Supposedly they had expertise in this kind of operation in wooded country.’

‘Dowler made the assignment?’

‘Yes, but I saw the field reports. If they’re faked then they’re good fakes. He’s covered. It looks like a prudent decision.’ Truelove shook her head. ‘No, if Dowler’s dirty then he’s got people behind him who are, quite frankly, a lot more competent than the Herosian military. This whole situation is too clever for them. If I didn’t think it was utterly ridiculous I’d say Winter was behind it. She’s the only person I’ve ever met who could organise something this complex and well hidden.’

Aneka shrugged. ‘It’s not her; she got her brains splattered across a courtyard. The Negral AIs could have done it, but their star system exploded. All the evidence points to the Herosians. They’ve been working on it since at least the start of the Federation. You can get really good at something if you practise for five hundred years.’

‘A valid point,’ Truelove conceded.

‘There is an aircraft heading in this direction from the city,’ Al said. ‘ETA is four minutes. The transponder indicates an FSA armed transport.’

‘Did anyone call for help?’ Aneka asked. They all shook their heads. ‘In that case, I suggest we leave. There’s something coming this way from the Agency. My car is about a kilometre away, but they won’t be able to track it as easily as yours, I suspect.’

Sharissa glowered at the sky to the south-west. ‘Lead the way,’ she growled. ‘We are going to have to do something drastic about this.’

‘I have a few ideas,’ Justine said. ‘Assuming that Elaine is willing to take point.’

FSA Headquarters, High Yorkbridge, 24.10.528 FSC.

Dowler came to a stop just inside the door of the outer office, his eyes on the young woman with the short, blonde hair sitting behind the desk.

‘Agent Truelove,’ he said, almost as though he had not been expecting her to be there.

She ignored the slip. ‘Mister Dowler.’

Dowler’s gaze shifted slightly. Justine was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. She had taken off the short jacket she commonly wore to conceal the large laser pistol in its holster under her left armpit. He looked back to Truelove and smiled. ‘How did the meeting go last night?’

‘It was a trap,’ Truelove replied. ‘The two agents you assigned to us were rogues.’ She went on before he could deny his involvement. ‘Not your fault, of course. I saw their records myself. Both apparently good agents with exceptional field experience. Clearly forged in some way. The Oversight Committee agrees with me. We obviously have some bad agents in our organisation.’

‘Uh…’

‘I’m instituting a full administrative review of all active agents. The committee is putting through the necessary paperwork to have external examiners brought in to interview everyone in this building.’

‘External examiners?’

‘Telepaths. I spent last night being checked out. Agents Torrence and Nivalis have been cleared to handle internal security. We’ll be working through the lower ranks first so that we can keep operations running as effectively as possible.’

‘Of course. Very prudent.’

‘Do you wish to take one of the early slots or wait until the end?’

The colour had drained out of Dowler’s face, but he managed to keep his voice steady. ‘I’ll check my schedule,’ he said, and then walked past Truelove’s desk to the office beyond.

Truelove glanced over at Justine and was happy to see that her bodyguard was having almost as much trouble keeping herself from laughing as she was.

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 1.11.528 FSC.

‘You’ve got more fan mail,’ Ella said from the console in the bedroom.

Aneka looked across at her from the bed and grimaced. ‘More?’

‘Uh-huh. We’ve got them from… two cruisers, fourteen frigates, the Admiral Wingate, and about a dozen shore stations on the Rim. I think enough sailors are jacking off to your poster to float a battleship.’

‘That is so not an image I needed.’ After her appearance on a chat show, polls had indicated that a pinup poster of Aneka would go down really well, especially with the Navy. It had taken several months of persuasion, but eventually she had broken down and spent an afternoon in a studio being primped and prodded into place for photographs. The eventual poster had been fairly artistic and quite tame compared to some of the similar artwork Aneka had seen. It barely qualified as a nude, actually; she was wearing silver bikini briefs and you couldn’t see too much breast. The Navy had, however, responded with vigour.

Ella giggled. ‘You should do another one. Something a little more risqué.’

‘I don’t think…’

‘Oh! Or you could do a set. You remember Doctor Wooten wanted to do a calendar.’

‘Isn’t it a little late for…?’

‘Modern printing technology. Print on demand. It’s just twelve pictures and Wooten’s really good. You’d get royalties, and lots more fan mail.’

Slipping off the bed, Aneka walked over to Ella and kissed her on the cheek. ‘The only fan mail I want is from you, not a bunch of horny Jenlay sailors.’

Ella giggled again. ‘One of these is from a Torem.’

Aneka groaned. ‘Put some clothes on. We’re supposed to be going over to Sharissa’s place.’

~~~

‘But Torem don’t even get any pleasure out of sex.’ The disbelieving voice was Truelove’s. After she had stayed with Janna and Sharissa following the FSA interrogations following Winter’s assassination, Janna had taken a liking to the young analyst, and Justine was just added icing as far as the elder Narrows was concerned. They both got invited over for meals on a regular basis.

‘Actually,’ Janna replied as she chopped vegetables, ‘that’s a common misconception. Torem have no apparent external genitalia, and get no stimulation from grinding their sex organs together like us ape descendants. However, they do have sensitive regions, erogenous zones if you wish, which can be stimulated to produce pleasure.’

‘Oh,’ Truelove said, blinking.

‘You know this how, Mother?’ Ella asked. She was in the lounge with Truelove, Sharissa, and Justine. Aneka was assisting in the kitchen.

‘A brief fling with a Torem woman,’ Janna replied. ‘It was a few years ago. There aren’t many of them who find Jenlay attractive, but it was worth it.’ She nudged Aneka conspiratorially. ‘They have very long, very nimble fingers.’

Aneka laughed. ‘I can’t say I’m in a hurry to find out, especially not with a xenophile Torem sailor.’

‘Your loss.’

Shaking her head, Aneka changed the subject. ‘How’s the mole hunt going?’

‘Well,’ Truelove replied.

‘Or badly,’ Sharissa added. ‘It depends how you look at it.’

‘We’ve arrested five people arrogant enough to believe the telepaths wouldn’t catch them,’ Truelove clarified. ‘We’ve also had sixteen agents suddenly go missing, and discovered irregularities in all their financial records.’

‘They were all recent transfers from the Herosian border region,’ Sharissa went on. ‘Not a big surprise, I guess.’

‘That many transfers and no one noticed?’ Aneka asked.

Truelove shrugged. ‘There’s a slight rise over last year, but well within the statistical range. People transfer out there, or are assigned, and transfer back all the time. Agents get an allowance for having to live long term off their native world. Out on the Rim that either means you live like a king or you return with a lot of savings. If you can stick it for a five-year tour or longer anyway. Some can’t.’

‘I thought the Rim was the edge of the Federation,’ Aneka said. ‘Surely the Herosian border is part of the core.’

‘Politically it is,’ Ella supplied, ‘but the culture is more like the Rim, and the worlds tend to be a bit less polished. They get less attention from both sides. The education and medicine are not quite as good, and the crime rates are higher.’

‘There’s more piracy out there,’ Justine put in. ‘Some of the worlds are a little more accepting of people with lower morals. It gets really bad at the triple boundary. They call it “Buccaneer’s Reach.” It’s where the Grand Market was before the Xinti War. There’s still a market there, but it mostly deals in dubiously obtained goods.’

‘I’ve heard of the Grand Market,’ Aneka said, ‘but I’ve no idea what it actually was. Aside from the obvious anyway.’

‘It was in the Gavell system,’ Ella, the resident historian, said. ‘Not a huge system, a binary with a couple of big gas giants and an asteroid belt. No one is quite sure how it got started, but the Herosians used to claim they built the first habitat there. Basically it was a cluster of asteroids and stations built to facilitate trade between the races. It used to be the place to go if you wanted something at a good price, or for hard to get items. It was always a little lawless, but since the war it has got really bad.’

‘The Herosians and Xinti had a battle there, right?’

‘And no one is quite sure why. Whatever the reason, the place was pretty badly shot up and the Herosian fleet was more or less wiped out.’

‘After that,’ Justine went on, ‘the Herosians were fighting a losing battle all the way to Herosia. And we all know what happened when they fought there.’

Janna stood up from putting food in the oven. ‘This is depressing,’ she said brightly. ‘How about a game?’

Aneka grinned at her. ‘What did you have in mind?’

‘Fives.’ Ella let out a small groan at her mother’s choice. ‘For clothes,’ Janna added. ‘It’s an excellent cure for depressing topics.’

‘Well,’ Aneka said, starting toward the lounge area, ‘that’s Ella naked in three hands.’

Ella pouted, even if she knew it was true.

21.11.528 FSC.

‘You have mail marked as urgent and private,’ the apartment’s computer announced.

Aneka glanced upward; force of habit. ‘Al, get that would you?’

There was a tiny pause and then, ‘The encryption is Old Earth, military grade.’

‘Old Earth? What’s in it?’

Al displayed the message in-vision. There was a list of names, the crew of the Garnet Hyde, basically, and a set of special coordinates, and a single line of text. It is urgent that you come.

‘Send messages out to everyone on the list,’ Aneka said. ‘Tell Drake we need to take the Hyde out today. I’ll brief him when we’re in space.’ She got to her feet and headed for the bedroom where she had left Ella sleeping.

‘You’re going to take the message at face value?’ Al asked.

‘Yes. It’s written in English.’

FScV Garnet Hyde.

‘Are you sure about this?’ Drake asked, his eyes on the stars ahead of them, even though that view told him little.

‘That depends,’ Aneka replied from behind his flight chair. ‘I’m sure we have to go look. I have no idea what we’ll find when we get there.’

‘We’ll know in about thirty seconds,’ Shannon said.

‘Sensors showing anything useful?’ Drake asked.

‘Nothing,’ Ella replied from the console at the side of the bridge. ‘No… there’s a mass there, something pretty big.’

‘I don’t like this,’ Drake grumbled.

Aneka shrugged. ‘If it’s a trap, then someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to set it. It would be rude not to turn up.’

‘Right… Drake to all hands, warp exit in ten. Brace for evasive action and sudden death.’

Aneka rolled her eyes, but took a firm grip on the back of the pilot’s chair as the display suddenly shifted into the red and then flickered back into a normal view and…

‘Oh… wow,’ Shannon said.

Ahead of them and just off to starboard was a warship. You could tell it was a warship from the ring of turrets around its midsection, and the huge forward beam weapon jutting from its bow. It was cylindrical aside from a slightly sloping quality to its bow section and a rather bulkier, spherical profile to the rear.

‘The vessel has no reaction drive exhaust system,’ Aggy commented as she began displaying a schematic diagram of the ship on their consoles. ‘This indicates a reactionless drive. The vessel’s mass is approximately one hundred thousand tonnes. The form is unlike any Herosian or Xinti design.’

‘It’s from Earth,’ Aneka said, her voice soft.

‘They said they’d built warships,’ Ella said. ‘I didn’t imagine anything this big…’

‘I am receiving a radio broadcast,’ Aggy said, and then a new voice came from the speakers.

‘Federal Science Vessel Garnet Hyde, this is Captain Tasker of the Battle Cruiser Hand of God. Please respond.’

Drake glanced at Aneka and then hit a key on his console. ‘This is Captain Drake responding. We weren’t expecting to see an Earth vessel in our region of space, Captain.’

‘No, sir,’ Tasker responded, ‘and that’s why we stopped a quarter parsec away from your system and requested that you come out to meet us. We would rather not discuss it over open radio, however. We have a representative of the Council aboard who is anxious to meet you and explain. We have a berth waiting for you in our hangar bay.’

As she spoke, two huge sections of the armoured hull swung out, and then forward and aft to reveal a hole in the side of the ship. ‘We’ll see you shortly, Captain,’ Drake said, closing the connection and starting the Hyde forward.

‘You seem calm,’ Aneka remarked.

‘If they wanted to kill us, they wouldn’t be inviting us in.’

‘True.’ Aneka watched the vast bulk of the cruiser sliding toward them. ‘So it’s just capture and torture we have to worry about.’

BC-101 Hand of God.

The inner airlock door opened ahead of them and the crew of the Garnet Hyde walked through onto the deck of the cruiser, wondering exactly what they were going to see. What they did see were six men and women in dark blue versions of the black armour the Enforcers used to wear, snapping smartly to attention, and another woman standing at the far end of the honour guard dressed in the same outfit, but without the helmet.

Aneka figured the latter was Captain Tasker, a pretty woman with what looked like long, blonde hair twisted up into a tight bun. She stepped forward and executed a very sharp salute. Aneka was quite impressed that she addressed Drake, standing beside her, first.

‘Captain Drake, welcome aboard the Hand of God. I’m Charlene Tasker, her captain. I’d be honoured if you would accompany me on a tour of the ship later. I understand that you have some considerable experience of military vessels and, well, we would appreciate any advice you might give us.’

Drake hid his surprise well. The Enforcers had been, more or less, Yrimtan’s jack-booted thugs in black armour, and then a bunch of disaffected thugs unsure of their future. The Guardians, it seemed, had found their place and were a lot happier about it than might have been expected.

‘I’d be honoured, Captain,’ Drake said.

Tasker grinned. ‘Call me Charley, otherwise we’ll be captaining back and forth, and we’ll sound like idiots.’ Drake nodded his acceptance of that, adding a grin for good measure, and Tasker turned her attention to Aneka. ‘Ma’am, it’s a real honour to meet you.’

Aneka shook her head. ‘You’re Charley, I’m Aneka, no arguments. I’m not her.’

Tasker grimaced slightly and Aneka’s eyebrows went up. ‘Sorry, I lost a bet. She’ll rub that in… You should meet our Council rep. I believe you’ve met her before…’ Tasker stepped aside and another figure could be seen grinning from the end of the small reception room.

Not especially tall, her face half hidden behind long, black hair, the girl was pretty in a cute sort of way and obviously quite young. She looked more or less the same as the last time they had seen her, except that she appeared to be quite comfortable in a skintight vacuum suit and that had not always been the case.

Ella bolted past Aneka and Drake, arms flung wide as she rushed at the girl. ‘Abby!’

Abby giggled as she was wrapped in the enthusiastic redhead. ‘Hello again, Ella. This is not a dignified way to greet a diplomatic envoy.’

Aneka walked toward them, smiling. ‘You are the representative the Council sent to New Earth?’

‘Apparently,’ Abby said, ‘I have a talent for diplomacy that the Citizens just don’t have. I’ve always been good at dealing with people. A little shy about it sometimes, maybe, but the last year has been so busy I guess I kind of forgot about that. When they needed to send someone here in person, Holly and Councillor Harper basically just looked straight at me.’ She looked over Ella’s shoulder at Tasker. ‘And Charley there. Best Commander in the fleet, in charge of our best ship.’

‘Best ship in the fleet until the Helios comes on line,’ Tasker said. She glanced at Drake. ‘Stellar-class battleship. She’s going to be a beast.’

‘Bigger,’ Drake replied, ‘is not automatically better.’

‘You said “needed to send someone,”’ Aneka interjected. ‘We were doing fine by FTL comms, and the Council wanted to keep things fairly arm’s length.’

‘And,’ Gillian said, ‘you clearly haven’t announced you were coming to the Administration.’

‘So why the need?’ Aneka finished.

Abby’s face went very serious, very suddenly. ‘You’d better come and have a look.’ Disengaging from Ella, she walked out through the rear door of the room and turned down a corridor, then into what appeared to be a sort of observation deck looking out over another section of hangar bay.

Al flashed up a schematic image of a ship as Aneka looked out through the window, twisting it to match the orientation of the wreckage she was seeing beyond the Polyglass. There was a bit less than half a ship visible, and that had ruptures along large sections of the hull plating. She was looking at the bow section of something that had once weighed in at around a thousand tonnes and was now probably more like four hundred. It was still a match.

‘It’s one of the frigates that’s been attacking our shipping,’ Aneka said. ‘You killed one.’

‘It attacked one of our Q-ships,’ Abby said. ‘One of its fuel tanks ruptured and blew pretty much the entire engineering section to dust, but we managed to recover this.’

‘Q-ships,’ Aneka said. ‘Haven’t heard that term in a while.’

‘Not all the Enforcers were muscle-bound lunkheads,’ Tasker replied. ‘Manu Dei did actually encourage us to think occasionally. One of our guys was a bit of a military historian.’

‘What’s a Q-ship?’ Ella asked.

‘Basically,’ Tasker replied, ‘it’s a transport of some sort that’s been kitted out with weapons. The idea is that it gets attacked instead of a real transport, and it can fight back.’

Ella nodded. ‘It sure looks like it could. It looks too damaged to get much definitive information about its origin from it.’

‘Ah, well that’s true,’ Abby said, ‘but we are pretty sure who’s behind the attacks.’

‘How?’ Drake asked, frowning at the wreck.

‘Because we managed to get several bodies out of the wreckage.’

~~~

The Hand of God was a big ship with a relatively small crew supplemented by heavy use of automated systems. It still had a hospital in it that could treat fifty people simultaneously, basically an entire working shift of thirty-six people, with room left over. Four of those places had been given over to freezer boxes with dead bodies in them.

Aneka looked into one of them and frowned. The occupant did not come as a surprise, but it did come as something of a worry.

‘Are they all Herosians?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ Abby replied. ‘We’ve been over the wreckage too. None of the signage is in Latin script. We don’t have records of the Herosian language, but…’

‘It’s definitely a Herosian ship,’ Gillian finished for her. She sounded worried too.

‘We figured you’d be pleased at the confirmation,’ Abby said, ‘but we also thought this might cause some friction.’

‘You’re right there,’ Bashford commented, his eyes on another of the bodies. ‘There have been several incidents. They’ve been played down, but the Jenlay Administration is getting nervous, I think.’

‘And the Herosians are getting both belligerent and defensive,’ Aneka added. ‘Our main security organisation is busy rooting out moles. No one is actually saying that they’re Herosian agents working against the Federation, but I think everyone knows it. They’ve tried to kill or capture me, and there have been various assassination attempts against people who have been sticking their necks out too far.’ She looked down at the corpse in the freezer. ‘This… This is going to be like throwing rocket fuel on an inferno.’

Part Three: Fire

BC-101 Hand of God, New Earth Orbit, 22.11.528 FSC.

There were naval engineers crawling all over the wreckage of the Herosian frigate. Aneka stood on the observation deck watching them work, a frown on her face.

They had spent the evening aboard the cruiser, planning how to proceed, slept in the rather more comfortable conditions of the VIP cabins, and then flown in the following morning. The reception had turned from cautious to enthusiastic too quickly for Aneka’s liking. Tasker and Abby had acquiesced to the Administration’s request to come aboard to look at the bodies and the wreckage, but at Aneka’s suggestion the Captain had put guards on the engineering sections. There was no reason for any of the New Earth people to be in those areas, and for now they were to be kept out of them.

There were exactly two representatives of the FSA aboard, and one of those was there purely to guard the other; Truelove was in the cruiser’s conference room with some Admiral or other and a couple of the New Earth Representatives. Abby and Tasker, as well as Gillian and Ella, were in there talking. The two scientists were there primarily to act as mediators; Aneka had absented herself because the Old Earth people viewed her as a leader and the New Earth people were just not going to understand that.

‘They’re taking a lot of time over that.’

Aneka did not turn at the sound of Drake’s voice. ‘I suppose they want to be sure,’ she replied. ‘Plus they’re probably trying to figure out whether they can get any useful tech off it.’

‘And the longer they stay, the more chance they can get a look at this ship’s technology.’

‘Not much chance of that. Not much chance it’ll do them any good if they get it. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. We’re pushing the Herosians kind of hard.’

‘Huh. They’re summoning Elroy back from Obati to see for himself. The Herosians are pushing to have a team visit.’

‘No chance,’ Aneka said vehemently.

‘From what I’m hearing, Abby is being very firm about that. Very polite, but also very firm.’

Now Aneka did turn, giving the man a grin. ‘I’m still having trouble reconciling the girl I met in Matlock with the woman in the conference room.’

Drake chuckled. ‘It’s barely the same person. She’s a Citizen. She’s got the computer implant and the education. At least she’s not on those cyberdrugs the city dwellers seem to like so much.’

‘Too down to earth for that, but I am glad she hasn’t dabbled. She wants to come down and stay with me and Ella for a couple of days, you know?’

‘I’d heard. See the sights of Yorkbridge. Encounter Jenlay society.’

‘Yeah… Can anyone say “culture shock?”’

Drake laughed. It was rather a nice sound to hear considering the rather depressing view outside the windows. ‘If there’s anyone who can help her through that, then you’re that person. Still, she’s got to get the Administration to agree to it first.’

‘Oh, I get the feeling that if she wants it, she’ll figure out a way to get it.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 24.11.528 FSC.

Abby looked around as she emerged from the subway flanked by Aneka and Ella. She was doing her best not to look like a tourist, though that was actually what they were using as a cover for her visit. She was a visitor from one of the Rim worlds, not used to the culture in the core. She had studied a little Federal, enough to get by, so that was covered, and no one knew she was on the planet, aside from a few people in the Administration and the crews of the Hand of God and the Garnet Hyde. Truelove and Justine knew as well, but they were not telling anyone in the FSA. The Old Earth’s representative was going to get an unvarnished view of New Earth society.

‘The architecture is so strange,’ Abby said as they walked through the streets toward Aneka and Ella’s apartment. ‘So big! And those signs… Are those Chinese characters?’

‘Hani,’ Ella said. ‘Aneka says they’re derived from Chinese, but they’re spelling out words in Federal.’

‘Right… I learned a little bit of Mandarin from Mei.’

‘How’s she doing?’ Aneka asked.

‘Well. She’s studying linguistics. Her Federal is much better than mine, and she’s been resurrecting several languages that only a few people still know.’

‘And your father?’

‘He’s fine. I visit fairly often. The Citizens managed to get some of their antigravity aircraft working so we can move around easier. He was worried about me coming out here, but he knows this is important, especially to you people. Am I dressed properly?’

She was looking around at the people they were passing. It was a work day, mid-afternoon, and most of the people on the street looked more her own age than Aneka’s. There was a fair amount of faux-leather about, fishnet tops, and very short skirts. They had dressed her in tight jeans and high-heeled clogs, both in a denim-like Bi-weave, and a strappy top largely composed of Bi-weave mesh. Aneka had suggested a bra under it, but Abby had looked at Aneka’s semi-transparent leotard and Ella’s cropped T-shirt, and then declined quite calmly. Her hair did a fairly good job of hiding her nipples anyway.

‘Worried you might be too covered up?’ Aneka replied, grinning.

‘Well… yes.’

‘This from the girl who couldn’t keep her eyes off our boobs and was worried about wearing a shipsuit.’

‘I’ve spent a year learning to be more… cosmopolitan.’

Ella giggled. ‘We can find you something more revealing later. You’re fine like that. Aneka was more covered up when she first did this walk.’

‘That’s true, I was,’ Aneka said. ‘These days I don’t care. Everyone here knows I’m not from New Earth, even that I’m not Jenlay. So if I dress a little strangely, that’s just me, and this suit has some advantages if we run into any problems.’

‘Are you expecting to?’ Abby asked, looking around at the citizens going about their business.

‘No, but lately I’ve been a little more paranoid than usual.’

They stopped beside something which looked like a garage door and Ella punched a button beside it to summon the lift.

‘You live up there?’ Abby asked, looking up into the layer of haze which obscured the sky between the tall buildings.

‘Yeah,’ Aneka said. ‘They’ve got a fairly small population and a huge amount of space, but they still like living in tower blocks.’

Abby giggled. ‘It’s different from what I’m used to. I kind of like it.’

‘See what you think when we get upstairs.’

The lift took them up to a platform running along the side of one block, shielded from the long drop only by a railing. The haze was below them now, and it blocked the view of the streets beneath, but it still looked a long way down. As Ella started across the bridge between one building and the next, Abby looked a little dubious.

‘It’s safe,’ Aneka said, ‘and the flat’s just across the way. We can get you settled in and then you can decide what you’d like to do.’

‘Okay. Could we go shopping? I’d like to get some ingredients and cook for you.’

Aneka laughed. ‘You’re the guest. We should be cooking for you.’

‘Please… I haven’t had a chance to cook in ages. We can have a nice meal, some wine, and then we can chat.’

‘Fair enough,’ Aneka said, smiling, ‘but we’ll help. The ingredients won’t be what you’re used to.’ She followed Abby in through the door to their block.

‘Abby does not have much better alcohol tolerance than Ella,’ Al commented. ‘Both of them on wine? You do know where that will end up?’

‘After what happened in Matlock, I’m not so sure, but this isn’t the same girl Ella seduced back there. Actually, I’m a little suspicious of her motives in suggesting the wine.’

‘Interesting. I can’t wait to find out what actually happens.’

~~~

‘And this is what you watch for entertainment?’ Abby asked, blinking at the huge wall screen in the lounge. It was displaying a movie currently showing on one of the entertainment channels, New Earth Leisure. That meant a comedy featuring a lot of nudity and a fair bit of sex.

‘I’m not really fond of this particular genre,’ Aneka replied, ‘but they don’t make films like the ones I did enjoy and Ella thinks these things are funny.’

‘What can I say?’ Ella said, grinning. ‘I grew up with these. Culturally, we like our entertainment very positive, and we view sex as a positive thing. So the hero, or heroine, gets the girl, or boy, with some humorous interludes on the way. There’s a happy ending, usually involving a bed. No one gets hurt.’

‘To be fair,’ Aneka added, ‘it’s not like every Jenlay likes them. Delta isn’t fond of them, but she’ll watch them.’

‘It’s kind of distracting,’ Abby said. ‘What do you put on when you just want to talk?’

Aneka laughed. ‘I think you’d find that distracting too. I do. But if you want…’

‘Aneka…’ Ella said warily. ‘I don’t think you should…’

The screen flickered black and then changed to a new image as Aneka remotely switched to one of their own recorded video feeds. Abby frowned, obviously trying to work out what she was seeing, then her eyes widened as a heavily muscled, naked man walked into view carrying Ella, equally naked, over one shoulder.

‘Uh…’ Abby said.

‘That’s Dillon,’ Aneka said. ‘He lives downstairs with his partner, Kat. They like making amateur porn, though calling it amateur isn’t doing it justice really.’

‘Uh… yes. He’s very… big.’

‘Aneka…’ Ella whined. The girl was actually blushing, which was definitely not a normal reaction for her.

Aneka relented and the screen shifted to showing the background beach scene the rest of the wall was showing. Music started playing over the room’s speakers. ‘Okay. Maybe that’s a little too much Jenlay culture.’

Abby giggled. ‘Ella looked like she was enjoying making it.’

‘Dillon’s very good,’ Ella said.

Picking up the wine bottle, Abby poured more into Ella’s glass and then her own. ‘As good as you?’ she said, her tone light.

‘It’s always different with a man. Not better, or worse, but different.’ Ella picked up her glass and took a drink. Almost an entire glass in, Aneka could see her pupils dilating and her skin flushing. ‘You know, us getting drunk is probably not a really great idea. I’ll make suggestions you wouldn’t want me making.’

Abby took a drink from her own glass. Aneka was fairly sure she knew what the black-haired girl was going to say before she said it. ‘Who says I wouldn’t want you to?’

Ella gulped down some more wine and looked at Aneka. Aneka gave her a slight smirk and a small shrug. ‘Oh,’ Ella said.

25.11.528 FSC.

Aneka felt, rather than heard, someone slipping into the shower with her, but she carried on washing herself and when there were no hands on her body after a second she knew it was not Ella.

‘You are a lot more forward than you used to be, young lady,’ she said, ‘but I get the feeling you’re not quite as confident as you make yourself out to be.’

Rather than answer the implied question, Abby said, ‘You knew what I was up to before Ella did.’

‘I thought I detected an ulterior motive. You’re smart enough to know what happens to you when you drink, and you must have noticed how Ella reacts to alcohol. I didn’t think you’d have suggested it if you didn’t want things to go the way they did.’ Turning, she reached out and pulled an unresisting Abby under the water, and then reached for the cleaning gel. ‘I’m less sure why.’

There was silence for a few seconds as Aneka began rubbing the iridescent, purple fluid over Abby’s skin. Then, ‘When I was talking to Ella after… well, after what happened, I said I was worried I’d never find a boy that made me feel the way she had. She said I would because I’d find someone I loved and that made all the difference.’

‘And you haven’t?’

‘The Citizen’s aren’t even interested. The boys I meet in class aren’t exactly experienced and the ones outside the cities are… boring.’

‘Ah.’

‘I just… I wanted to feel that good again. I’ve barely had any time just for me in six months.’ There was a slight pause and then, ‘God that feels good…’

‘If you want time to just enjoy yourself… I can accept that. Don’t stop looking for that boy who’s going to love you though. Or girl if you’ve decided you don’t care. I never thought I’d end up with a girl so I’m not going to judge.’

‘R-right now a girl’s n-not looking so b-bad.’

‘I’m taken.’

Abby whimpered. ‘I’m coming…’

Yorkbridge North Beach.

Katelyn Looper was a tall woman, and her nickname, Kat, was appropriate. She was lithe, sensual, and fit. Her dark-blonde hair was always in perfect cornrows, her eyes were dark. The only feature her boyfriend, Dillon, would have changed about her was her breasts, which were moderately large, but he had something of a fetish for bigger ones. Despite this they had been together for several years, so she clearly had other attributes he found even more appealing.

Right now she was sweating like a pig and breathing hard, but that was because she was running with Aneka, and they were on the last half kilometre of the return leg and pushing a little harder. Aneka, of course, was running along in bare feet and a bikini as though it were no effort at all, but Katelyn was not quite so bothered about that as she once had been; it was very hard to outperform a combat robot chassis.

Aneka glanced at her running companion as her navigation system indicated they had three hundred metres to go. ‘Al, how’s she doing?’

‘Her heart rate is hovering around one-forty,’ the AI replied. He was monitoring her identity implant which doubled as a bio-monitor. Aneka pushed up a pace, breaking into a sprint, and Katelyn let out a gasp of a laugh before pulling up beside her. ‘One-fifty,’ Al said. ‘One-fifty-three… stabilised there.’

They ran up to three figures lying on the sand, Aneka pulling to a smooth stop and Katelyn dropping to her hands and knees with a laugh, her lungs working like forge bellows. ‘Oh wow,’ she gasped after a few seconds. ‘That last push was mean.’

‘Her heart rate is coming down quickly,’ Al commented. ‘Down to less than a hundred already.’

‘You can take it,’ Aneka said aloud. ‘You are getting to be one tough lady.’

‘And I love the sight of a woman on her hands and knees,’ Dillon commented. He was a big man, in every sense of the word, though the immediate impression you got when you saw him was ‘slab of muscle.’ He worked out with weights every day, but he was very tall so it did not look out of proportion. He had a rough sort of face, square and solid, but that was softened by long, black hair, especially when he wore it loose.

‘Pervert,’ Katelyn replied, pushing herself upright, then to her feet, and starting to pull off her running gear.

Abby lay silently in the sun, watching the interplay while trying to not look like she was looking. They had had to stop off at one of the shops behind the beach to buy her some swimwear. She had procrastinated over several one-piece suits before actually buying a tiny little Ultraskin bikini, which she was only wearing the bottom half of. Ella was topless, and had a lot more top to show, and Abby was trying to fit in. Aneka remembered that phase herself.

‘Huh.’ Dillon responded. He sat up, which drew Katelyn’s attention, and then nodded toward Abby, raising questioning eyebrows. Katelyn looked questioningly back, pausing in her undressing, so Dillon repeated his gestures, but with more emphasis. Katelyn mouthed ‘oh’ at him and then turned to Aneka, nodded toward Abby, and raised her eyebrows…

Aneka burst out laughing.

‘What’s funny?’ Ella asked, her voice a little drowsy.

‘Nothing, love. Don’t fall asleep, I don’t want you burning.’

‘I’ve got sunscreen on.’ Nevertheless, she turned onto her front, resting on her elbows.

‘Abby,’ Aneka went on, ‘Kat’s a really great cook. Fancy eating at their place tonight?’

‘Uh, well, if it wouldn’t be any trouble…’

‘No trouble,’ Katelyn replied. ‘We’d love to have you.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

Dinner was over, food had settled, there had been conversation and wine, and Dillon was ‘having’ Abby. She had been a little nervous about it at first, but had got into it quickly. So quickly that he had taken control, his big hands gripping her hips as she sat straddling his legs, slowing the pace and forcing her to wait for that first climax she had been rushing toward. She had been begging him to let her come after ten minutes.

Now, twenty minutes later, she was almost a rag doll bouncing in his lap, her eyes hooded and her mouth hanging open, but this time Dillon was going to push himself over the edge along with her. He quickened the pace, the smile he had been wearing throughout turning more into a rictus as he neared orgasm, and Abby began wailing as her body was overtaken by pleasure once more.

Katelyn moved in behind the young brunette, lifting her gently up and into her arms. Abby was trembling and making little mewling noises as she was carried to the circular bed where she was laid down with Aneka and Ella, Katelyn slipping down beside her.

‘Enjoy that?’ Ella asked, smiling indulgently.

‘It was… amazing,’ Abby breathed, slipping into English in her post-orgasmic haze.

‘Okay…’ Katelyn said, still smiling, ‘who is she?’

‘She’s not a Jenlay,’ Dillon said, settling onto the bed at the women’s feet. ‘I can’t last that long with Kat or Ella.’

Aneka chuckled. ‘This doesn’t go outside this room, okay?’

‘Of course,’ Katelyn replied.

‘You know there’s a ship from Old Earth in orbit? Well, Abby is the official representative of their government from that ship. She’s Human, rather than Jenlay.’

‘So that was that “English” you say Federal is derived from?’ Katelyn asked. ‘I mean, I understood that, it just sounded a bit funny.’

‘Sorry,’ Abby said. ‘I didn’t mean to burden you with the secret.’

Dillon chuckled softly. ‘I’m not feeling especially burdened, but we’ll give it a while and you can give us a three-way apology.’

Abby whimpered.

26.11.528 FSC.

‘So my faith in finding a man I like has been reaffirmed,’ Abby said as they ate breakfast.

‘Well that’s good,’ Ella replied, grinning.

‘The problem now is, where am I going to find another Dillon?’

Ella giggled. ‘He’s not entirely unique. Get one of those Guardians off those stupid electronic drugs.’

‘He still wouldn’t know what he was doing.’

‘No, but that just means he doesn’t have bad habits. You can train him up just the way you like.’

‘That sounds like a military campaign to get yourself a perfect lover,’ Aneka commented.

‘It does,’ Abby agreed. ‘A Guardian might actually like that.’

Ella giggled again. ‘I thought we could go to the Federal History Museum today. Aneka’s never been and it’ll show you a lot about how this society came into existence.’

‘And it means we won’t spend the entire day in bed,’ Aneka added. ‘I approve.’

High Yorkbridge.

The museum was a big, white building out on the eastern edge of the city, near the coast. It was not exactly crowded, but there were people about. Most of them were families, a couple and a child, out to show the younger Federal Citizens the history of the world they lived in. Aneka recognised a few students from the university, and Al pulled up records on each of them indicating that they were studying history.

‘Jenlay aren’t too much more interested in history than we are, huh?’ Abby said as they walked through the reception hall.

‘Some are more interested than others,’ Ella replied, ‘but a lot of Jenlay have a rather selective view of it. Federal history, the important parts, gets taught in school. Beyond that it gets very vague.’

The centre of the hall was occupied by a statue in gleaming, silver metal. Three figures sitting around a small table, their glasses raised toward each other. Jenlay, Torem, and Herosian at the moment the Lorenti Federation was born. This was when the Renewal was first spoken, and the words of that little speech were inscribed around the marble plinth the statue sat on. Aneka looked up at it and frowned. Five hundred and twenty-eight years, almost twenty-nine. Would it make it to five hundred and thirty?

They walked on through a hall featuring the statues of those most influential in creating the Federation. It was noticeable that there were a lot of Jenlay, fewer Torem, and far fewer Herosians among the blocks of bioplastic which had been made to look like stone. Aneka stopped in front of one of the figures, a small woman with intense features rendered serene by the medium they were portrayed in. Most of the other statues had a photograph of the original person on the information display beside them, this one did not.

‘Xenia Winter,’ Ella said. ‘The statue was commissioned after her death, and from descriptions taken from people who knew her. As far as anyone’s ever been able to figure out, there are no pictures of her.’

‘I gather that she is out of favour at the moment,’ Abby said. ‘One of the Representatives suggested that she was some sort of spy for the Xinti.’

‘Some of them think that, yes,’ Aneka said.

‘But it was someone named Winter who sent us the warning about the Herosians.’ She was keeping her voice low, clearly aware that no one was supposed to know about that. ‘The thought occurred to me that a Xinti agent would want to destroy the Federation, and us bringing the Herosian ship here will surely do that.’

It was an interesting thought. It was even quite logical unless you knew that Winter was a Xinti AI. ‘I don’t believe she was a Xinti agent,’ Aneka said, softly. ‘But it doesn’t make any difference. Eventually the Jenlay would have nailed one of those ships, or the Herosians would have escalated their attacks. It’s the Herosians who are trying to destroy the Federation, not Winter.’

‘I came to the same conclusion,’ Abby said, grinning. ‘I just wondered what you would say.’

Aneka laughed. ‘You are getting far too good at politics, young lady.’

~~~

There was a room near the back of the building which Aneka was both dreading and fascinated by. They walked in to discover they were alone; no one else wanted to look at the Xinti exhibits at the moment.

‘That’s what they looked like?’ Abby asked, looking at a pair of life-size models in a display case.

The things within were a little shorter than a Human, and looked vaguely reptilian, or perhaps demonic. The skin was a mottled grey, and it had an angular head, pointed chin and ridged, almost horned skull. The lips were thin to the point of vanishing, there was little in the way of a nose, and the eyes were black. Oddly it had five long fingers on its hands, but three-toed feet on digitigrade legs.

‘Well,’ Ella said, ‘this is what we’ve found at dig sites, but we don’t know whether this is what they originally looked like. We’ve always assumed that this form, which is what they used the most, looks a lot like their original shape, but there are some things about them that don’t make evolutionary sense.’

‘The fingers and toes?’ Aneka suggested.

‘It’s not entirely likely, but possible. Humans and Jenlay were heading toward losing their smallest toe. On the other hand, they may have engineered this shape for greater stability, and we think they messed with the internal organs.’

Abby turned. There was another case with a much larger body model in it. More reptilian still, it looked like something from a bad sci-fi movie, and the huge antimatter blaster rifle it was holding did not help with the look. ‘And they would just pick whatever body they needed for the job?’ she asked.

‘Yes. That was their preferred warrior form at the start of the war. Physically powerful, fast, built-in weaponry in the shape of claws. They are actually a lot more precise than you might expect.’

‘The Warrior caste thought of themselves more as warriors than soldiers,’ Aneka said. ‘Those blasters were their signature weapon of war, but they preferred something more precise. My machine pistols and rifle are Xinti designs.’

‘As the war progressed and the Torem brought in some of their old, high-tech weapons, the Xinti turned to a different form.’ Ella turned and pointed at what appeared to be the prime exhibit in the middle of the room. ‘A lot of Jenlay think of that as a Xinti.’

Someone had either reconstructed or carefully rebuilt the humanoid, robotic body. It was all gleaming metal, polished to within an inch of its life, and Aneka somehow doubted that a real Xinti would have gone to war in something you could see from five klicks away. It was basically a heavy, metal skeleton about two metres tall with armour plates smoothing out the contours. The head was relatively small and quite angular, suggesting that it housed sensor systems only, the brain being located within the main body behind all that armour. This was a body built purely for war.

‘They’d given up their ideals by then,’ Aneka said, her tone a little distant. ‘That thing’s like one of those armoured battlesuits we’ve come up against. It’s not something a warrior would use. It’s designed only for war. It’s a soldier’s weapon.’

‘They weren’t losing when they started using them,’ Ella supplied, ‘but they were probably worried they might. Those things and the use of a lot of robots for fighting… that’s why Jenlay don’t like robots and cyborgs much.’

‘Kat and Dillon didn’t seem worried,’ Abby said, one hand drifting to the back of her neck. ‘I mean, yesterday they were pretty intimate with two cyborgs and whatever you classify Aneka as.’

‘It’s been a thousand years,’ Ella replied, ‘and robots are damn useful. Dillon’s from the Rim and people out there are more used to robots. Kat got to know me before she figured out I had cybernetic eyes and… Well, basically she’d rather have a friend than worry over that friend being a little strange.’

‘They’d figured out I wasn’t Human before they actually heard what I was,’ Aneka said. ‘Kat even said it might have freaked her out if she had known up front, so she was glad she got to know me before her prejudice ruined it.’ She shrugged. ‘Still, I get a couple of hate mails every month from someone who thinks I should be melted down for scrap.’

‘You get far more fan mail,’ Ella pointed out.

‘You get fan mail?’ Abby asked, grinning.

‘She does. I’ll get you a copy of the poster.’

Aneka groaned. ‘Please don’t do that. Just imagine what’ll happen if that gets back to Earth.’

Ella was suppressing a grin. ‘I am. It’ll definitely differentiate you from Manu Dei. She would never be caught dead doing that.’

BC-101 Hand of God, 27.11.528 FSC.

Abby was a distinctly different girl sitting behind a desk in one of the offices aboard the cruiser, which had now been declared officially as a diplomatic mission from Old Earth. She was back in her shipsuit, though the ones the Old Earth people used were not translucent like the ones the Jenlay created, and she was all business.

‘So, while I was enjoying myself things have been moving along,’ she told Aneka, Ella, and Gillian. ‘The Hand of God is officially Old Earth territory. I hope you brought your passports. One of your top politicians, a Senator Jackson Elroy, is flying here from Obati…’

‘We know Elroy,’ Aneka said. ‘He’s a good man.’

Abby nodded. ‘He won’t get back here until next year, unfortunately. Prime City has asked me to stay here until he arrives and I’ve said I would.’ She gave a small sigh. ‘I didn’t think I’d get back home for Christmas anyway. Besides, they want me here because your Senate isn’t waiting for more information. They’ve called for a meeting on the first so that the Herosians can explain themselves.’

‘That could go very badly,’ Gillian said, frowning.

‘Yes, but we’re talking about politicians,’ Abby said. ‘All politicians can do is talk. If they aren’t talking then they aren’t doing anything… Also, when they stop talking the shooting usually starts.’

‘Do you really think they can talk their way through this?’ Aneka asked. ‘This feels like the lead up to Iraq. The UN argued and everyone knew how it was going to end up.’

Abby gave a shrug. ‘Honestly? I don’t see how this can go well, but I’m new to this diplomacy business. Maybe the Herosians can be talked into backing down.’

Everyone went silent. No one wanted to say how unlikely that seemed.

‘You can spend Christmas with us,’ Ella said, more to say anything than for the actual words. ‘After last year, I could really do with a party, and…’

‘There is no way I will persuade your Administration or the Captain to let me off this ship without an official escort again,’ Abby replied, though she was grinning. ‘Anyway, I didn’t think you people did Christmas.’

‘We had a Christmas party two years ago,’ Gillian explained. ‘Well, a Jenlay version of one. Mostly it was an excuse to get friends and family together. It was just after Negral and there were a lot of us who just felt… Being together to celebrate seemed like a good idea.’

‘All right, how about we have a party here? Even if we have to set up some tents in the cargo bay we can host something. I can call it my thank you to the crew of the Garnet Hyde for re-joining our worlds. Obviously you can bring friends…’

Aneka chuckled. ‘You want to invite Dillon and Kat?’

Abby coughed, hiding her blush behind her hair. ‘I’ll think about that.’

‘Oh, that reminds me,’ Gillian said, ‘one of those friends asked me if I would pass on a request. Doctor Wallace. He’s the head of physical sciences at the university and he would like to take a look around.’ Abby started to open her mouth, but Gillian went on. ‘He was with us on Negral. He’s seen things even you don’t have access to and kept his mouth firmly closed, and he built the second-generation warp drive our military is experimenting with. He might even be able to give your engineering staff some pointers.’

‘He’s also a really nice guy,’ Aneka added.

Abby looked between them and then nodded. ‘I’ll have to ask Captain Tasker, but if you vouch for him…’

28.11.528 FSC.

Abraham Wallace was a very tall man, a fine example of what being born into a low-gravity environment would do to a Jenlay. Stick thin to begin with, his age was starting to show, especially in his face, which likely put him over two hundred. His muscles had never entirely grown used to normal gravity, but he moved around with ease thanks to a gadget the Negral AIs had given him which let him walk around in his own, personal, low-gravity field. Thanks to that he was able to wear more casual clothes on the ground, and at least there was no exoskeleton visible under his shipsuit.

Wallace was a genius, there were few who would object to that designation, but those who knew him also knew that he would be a genius who got next to nothing done without his glamorous assistant. Cassandra looked exactly like someone who should not be walking around with the old physicist. She was average in height, though her feet were usually in high heels which made her look considerably taller. She had long legs, wide hips, a narrow waist, a very expansive bosom, and the sculpted face of a model complete with crystal clear, blue eyes and long, platinum-blonde hair. To be absolutely correct, she had the sculpted face of a popular, if slightly outdated, sex robot. Cassandra was an AI, and the love of Al’s life.

Together they stood in the engine room of the Hand of God, peering at the machinery around them. Aneka had to admit that this really looked like the engine room of a starship. The Hyde had an engine room, and she had been in one aboard a frigate, but those were basically cabin-sized bays that gave easy access to the drives and reactors. This engine room was an engine room.

There were pipes and cable ducts. There were huge chunks of machinery with flashing lights and glowing display panels. There were ladders running between the two decks, with the huge rear section of the main spinal weapons system below, and lots of… engineering above. The huge toroidal structure which formed the warp field was wrapped around the entire room. There was a big, spherical thing at the rear that was the reactionless drive. And right in the middle of it all was a heavily shielded structure containing an enormous fusion reactor.

‘This,’ Wallace said, ‘is what a spaceship should look like.’

Shannon, standing nearby, laughed. ‘It’s a lot roomier than my engine room. Not that I’d say that in front of Aggy.’

‘Aggy is quite happy being the AI aboard a science vessel,’ Cassandra replied.

‘Yeah, but I bet she’d be even happier if she could be on a science vessel this big with these engines. They look… What do you think, Doctor? Twice the power-mass ratio?’

‘She’ll do just over one-point-three light hours per second.’ The speaker was a woman, Madison Kent, the chief engineer of the ship. Unlike most of the crew, she was not an ex-Enforcer. She had helped design and build the ship, and it had been felt that having her aboard to handle any problems might be a good idea.

Shannon frowned for a second, doing conversions in her head. ‘Yeah, twice as fast as the Hyde. That’s pretty amazing for such a big ship.’

Kent smiled. ‘Partially we wanted to see if we could do it, but we sold it to the Guardians on the basis that it can deploy quickly. We could, if needed, warp our way out to Saturn in a matter of minutes. It’s not exactly a recommended manoeuvre, but it’s possible.’ She narrowed her eyes slightly. ‘I understood you were a pilot, Miss Patton?’

‘The Hyde’s a small ship. Drake and I have to handle everything from flying her to fixing her if she breaks. I tend to do the engineering. I was taught to work on our drive by some AIs and I wanted to see how this one stacked up to its smaller cousin.’

‘And?’

‘I wouldn’t know where to start,’ Shannon replied, laughing. ‘Actually, that’s a lie, but it’s different, and not just because it’s scaled up.’

‘Yours was designed by the Xinti; ours was extrapolated from a Human first-generation drive, derived from a Xinti drive. I’d imagine the similarities outweigh the differences, but there are bound to be some variations.’

‘And you were on the design team?’ Wallace asked.

‘Yes, though I was actually more involved with the hulking brute at the back. We got it working on a small scale easily enough, but scaling it up proved harder than we thought.’

Wallace almost swooped down on her. ‘You worked on the sublight drive? Oh, my dear, we have so much to talk about…’

~~~

‘Aneka?’ Aneka turned to see Tasker walking down the corridor toward her.

‘Charley, what can I do for you?’

‘Well, I was just wondering when I could have my lead engineer back. Your Doctor Wallace seems to have stolen her.’

‘Abraham gets very enthusiastic about physics,’ Aneka replied, grinning. ‘I’m sure he’ll let her up for air in… Oh, no more than a week.’ She started off again, now with the Captain walking beside her.

‘A week? Is that one of your ten-day weeks, or one of our seven-day ones?’

‘Local calendar. A week. Maybe two.’

‘Two weeks?’

‘At most.’

‘Twenty days?’

‘Let’s call it a month to be safe.’

Tasker narrowed her eyes. ‘I’m sorry, I’m an ex-Enforcer. We had our senses of humour surgically removed when we got the job.’

Aneka chuckled softly. ‘Actually, I’m starting to think there might be hope for you lot after all.’

Mercy Island, Obati IV, 1.12.528 FSC.

Diana Ollander sighed, turned over, and slapped the pad on her bedside console which cancelled the alarm. She had learned early in her career that vocal cancellation led too easily to going back to sleep. She had also learned to program the computer to set the alarm off again if she did not get out of bed after ten minutes, but that was not going to be a problem this morning.

Still, she remained on her back, staring at the ceiling, for a while longer. She wanted to get herself ready for the day ahead of her and a moment’s thought would be a good start.

The Herosians had really fucked everything up. There was no other way to describe the current situation.

She had seen the Navy’s analysis of the wreck the Old Earth people had brought over. It matched perfectly the one sensor scan they had of the ships which had been performing sneak attacks all over the Federation, and it was very obviously Herosian. The design was all theirs and the crew had been Herosian.

Worse, the crew had been Herosian military. In uniform! Elroy had told her about some history book he had read about pirates back on the seas of Old Earth. There was a type of pirate called a privateer, the difference being that privateers had a licence to harry enemy shipping from the government of the time. They were basically state sanctioned brigands. At least they had had the sense to wear civilian clothing! If they were caught, they were just private citizens.

No, there was no way they were wriggling out of this one, and that was just going to make it harder to salvage anything out of this mess. Elroy had used another analogy, something about cornered rats. Ollander had thought it was distinctly appropriate, considering they were talking about the Herosians.

Sighing again, she slipped her long legs out from under the sheets and padded across the deeply piled carpet to the bathroom. A shower was going to do her good, relieve the stress a little.

Of course, that was another thing. The Council had dispatched Elroy to meet with the Old Earth representative and deal with things on New Earth, and her little affair with him had been one of the few bright spots in her life here. She smiled as she started the water running. He was older than she was, and much older than her two partners, but he sure knew what he was doing in bed. And on the carpet. And in the shower. And on the kitchen counter…

She shook her head and stepped into the shower. If she kept thinking like that she was going to be depressed all day.

Instead, she realised as the water soaked into her long, black hair, she was probably going to be frustrated and angry all day. Maybe depressed would have been better.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

‘How long before we get any news from these Senate meetings?’ Aneka asked.

‘Well they put a new communications link in last year,’ Ella replied from the kitchen, ‘but it’s still a seventeen-hour lag.’

Aneka gave a grunt of displeasure, her eyes on the silent wall screen which was displaying almost non-stop coverage of the current Herosian situation on CFM. ‘Just like my time. They’ve got no news, but they have to report something so they keep recycling the same scraps over and over.’

Giggling, Ella handed Aneka a mug of Ashtenna coffee. ‘Here, this’ll help.’

‘Only because it tastes good. You know, I finally worked out what it is about this stuff that’s so good.’

‘Oh?’ Ella walked around the couch to settle down beside Aneka, hips pressed together.

Aneka swapped her mug to the other hand so that she could actually lift it and then slipped her right arm around Ella’s shoulders. ‘Yeah. Coffee usually smells great and tastes like a watered down version of its scent. This stuff tastes the way it smells.’

‘Huh, yeah. It’s probably best the caffeine doesn’t affect you. You seem kind of hyped.’

‘I’m restless. Do you think Kat and Dillon would be up for a trip to the beach?’

‘Probably. Since you started monitoring Kat’s bio-chip on your runs she says she’s getting a much more effective workout.’ She sipped her coffee, savouring the taste for a second. ‘And while you’re out running, I’ll persuade Dillon to give you another wrestling match.’

Aneka laughed. ‘You know he doesn’t entirely like doing that.’ Which was true. When Aneka’s secret nature had been revealed, Dillon had made a joke about how they could have got up to all sorts of things had they known she was almost indestructible. In reality he was a fairly gentle man and Kat’s suggestion that he try wrestling Aneka had turned out to be a bit of a washout. It had not entirely helped that he knew Aneka was letting him win at the end. They had given it another go, making it more game and less sport, and that had worked a bit better…

‘This is for a good cause. I know we can’t tire you out, but a bit of rough sex will do you good.’ She thought about it for a second and then added, ‘We’ll put you in a corset and you can pretend to be forcing him. I think big old Dillon might actually really like that.’

Aneka gave a slight shrug. ‘I’ll try anything once. Not going to work though. I feel like I’m watching a very slow, multi-car pile-up and I can’t do anything to stop it.’

‘That’s making the assumption that it’s your job to stop it, love. It’s not. It’s down to the politicians and, if they fuck it up, the Navy.’

Aneka sighed. ‘Oh that makes me feel so much better.’

Senate Grand Forum, Obati IV.

The Herosians were either in denial, or there was something very bad going on. None of the Herosian politicians seemed to be willing to accept the truth and they were so vehement about it that Ollander was starting to have doubts herself.

Herosian Senators had been filing onto the podium for the last hour to give long speeches. All of them boiled down to one thing, however. They knew nothing of these ships. Whatever the truth was, these ships could not be anything to do with the Herosian government. Had there not been attacks on Herosian shipping? It was ridiculous to think such ships could have been hidden from the politicians and they knew nothing of them.

The first counterargument had been that the Jenlay had made the whole thing up. This was some sort of conspiracy between the two Earths to discredit the Herosians. That might have worked if the Torem had gone for it, but they were having none of it. They pointed out that Old Earth had been quite reluctant to become involved with the Jenlay, and that all the data on the wreck appeared to be genuine.

Now the slightly less belligerent Herosians were suggesting either a mercenary group or a rogue faction within the military. The latter made more sense, and it was true that Herosian society tended to form cliques and groups which operated secretly. That was usually over business deals and cartels, however. A mercenary group was a possibility; one had been responsible for the assault on New Earth. But then there was the problem of the uniforms. Still, those pushing the military faction theory could point to the recent attempt to kill or capture Aneka Jansen which had been ascribed to a rogue Admiral.

Currently it seemed like even the Jenlay were willing to entertain the ‘rogue navy’ idea. Ollander had to admit that it might give them a way out. At the very least it could bring about a delay in open hostilities while the politicians demanded action from the military. There were already negotiations going on regarding Jenlay military units being deployed into the Herosian border regions to search for facilities being used by the rogues.

Ollander settled back in her seat amid the huge, curving ranks of seating the Senators used, and tried to relax. Another Herosian was climbing up to say the same things as his three predecessors and she really needed to relax.

Tristar Township, New Earth.

Gillian had been ignoring Bashford’s activities for the last couple of hours, but when he started disassembling and running component checks on his weapons she decided that she needed to intervene.

‘Bash, love, what are you doing?’ Sort of an intervention anyway.

‘Mostly,’ the bald facilitator replied, ‘I’m keeping busy.’

‘By checking every bit of survival gear you have at home?’

‘Uh-huh. And taking inventory. I’m not sure we won’t need it and you know I like to prepare when I have the time.’

Gillian watched him as he continued running tests on the dining table. Then she looked around at the wall screen where CFM was still rehashing the few released details of the Herosian pirate ship. The sound was off, but the reporters and pundits looked very serious.

‘I’m going to go over the city emergency plans,’ she said. ‘I recall they’re on record at the Administration’s information site.’

‘Not a bad idea.’

Senate Grand Forum.

The tall, blue-and-white clad form of Senator Yakis ambled toward Ollander as she sat eating lunch at one of the tables overlooking the ocean. He looked like he was ambling with a purpose, but she ignored him for now. She enjoyed being in this spot, watching the water washing up the beach. It was relaxing, and she needed relaxing.

Obati IV had been selected as the site for the Senate for two reasons. It was relatively central, at least between the Jenlay and Herosian regions. More importantly, no one wanted it. Resource poor and essentially flooded, the only land took the form of islands, some fairly large, but most no bigger than a mountain top sticking up from the vast, worldwide ocean. The island with the Senate buildings on had never been given a real name; it was just the Senate Grand Forum.

It had been selected primarily for the size, which was sufficient for the buildings planned for it, and for the proximity of a group of other islands, which were used for the spaceport, diplomatic residences, and staff housing. It was, however, quite beautiful in places and the balcony overlooking the black sand beach with the deep blue water beyond was one of Ollander’s favourite places on any world.

‘Enjoying the view?’ The Torem had ambled within vocal range.

Ollander smiled up at him, nodding toward the seat opposite. ‘It’s a very nice view.’

‘I grew up on stations and habitats,’ Yakis replied, folding himself onto the seat. ‘I tend to prefer starfields.’ Ollander gave a slight shrug, conceding the vagaries of aesthetics. ‘It occurs to me,’ Yakis went on, ‘that while the prevailing theory has merit, and does give us time to work on a political solution, it does have one flaw that may “come back to bite us.” I believe that is the right idiomatic phrase.’

Ollander’s lips twitched. ‘That works. What’s this flaw?’

Yakis gave a small grunt of a laugh. Torem tended to learn to mimic Jenlay mannerisms rather than really understand them, and they tended to get them a little wrong. ‘Herosian politicians tend to think themselves significantly more important than the rest of their society does. It’s quite possible that their entire military is involved, but no one bothered to tell their Senators.’

Ollander frowned. ‘A slight exaggeration, perhaps…’

‘Perhaps.’

‘The point still stands, however. What do your colleagues say?’

‘I have not discussed the matter with them. They are convinced that, should the Herosians escalate, they will move on the Jenlay so long as we stay out of the fight.’

Ollander paled visibly. ‘That… is likely a valid assumption, but…’

‘It would be a temporary respite. Divide and conquer. My people are blinded by their own mortality. They take excessive care to ensure the survival of the species, ignoring the long term for immediate threats.’

‘Ah… Why are you telling me this?’

‘Someone needs to be dealing with this matter, and I believe you are best placed to engage those who need to know.’

‘The Navy? The FSA? No, not the latter, they’re still cleaning up their mess…’

‘Neither, I think. Someone you know can be trusted to tell the right people. Or the right person.’ The Torem slipped out of his seat and started away before Ollander could question him further. ‘I’m quite sure you’ll do the right thing, Senator.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 2.12.528 FSC.

The first reports of the Senate meetings were coming through when Aneka and Ella got back to their apartment, and they were not what Aneka would have described as hopeful.

‘This is Alexander Hook reporting from the Senate Grand Forum where discussions have broken for the day.’ The reporter was a typical Jenlay: fit, attractive, and virtually indistinguishable from every other presenter on the media channels. ‘Following a report by Rear Admiral Crofton on the new evidence of Herosian pirate activity, the Senate got down to discussing the matter.’

The screen cut away from the reporter to footage of some Herosian droning on at a podium. Aneka imagined there was droning; what she heard was the voiceover. ‘Initial arguments suggested that the sudden delivery of such damning evidence was a conspiracy, but this was quickly changed to a more logical argument that the terrorist attacks were part of an operation by rogue military agencies within the Herosian Navy.’

‘That… makes a certain amount of sense,’ Ella commented. Aneka gave a grunt in reply.

‘Discussions continued this afternoon,’ Hook went on, ‘largely around how these rogue elements can be uncovered and dealt with. Three of the five Herosian Councillors are returning to Herosian space tomorrow to begin the search, but Jenlay Senators are continuing to push for a full naval response from all states.’

‘Mute,’ Aneka commanded, and the sound died.

‘It sounds like they’ve bought into this conspiracy business,’ Ella said.

‘Yeah, it does.’

‘You don’t believe it?’

‘I don’t believe there isn’t some high-level government involvement in this… Computer, scan the media feeds for the Herosians who spoke at the Senate today. Were any of them Councillors?’

‘Searching…’ the bland voice of the apartment’s computer announced. ‘No. None of the Herosian speakers at the Senate today were Council members.’

Aneka nodded. ‘None of them want to be actually seen lying.’

‘Have you always been this pessimistic?’

‘I prefer to call it “realistic cynicism.”’

‘Katelyn Looper is requesting admittance,’ the computer announced.

‘Let her in,’ Ella said. Then she waited for the door to open before adding, ‘You know you don’t have to ask, Kat.’

‘Yeah, but it seemed appropriate,’ Katelyn said as she walked in. She was wearing a quite smart skirt suit, which surprised Aneka, though she took off the jacket as she walked and a more Kat-like, nearly transparent blouse was under it. ‘I wanted to ask a favour of Aneka.’

‘Sure,’ Aneka replied, ‘assuming I can help.’

‘I want you to teach me to fight. Unarmed combat. I’ve done a little boxing, for fitness, but I want to learn how to do it properly.’

Aneka frowned, glancing at the wall screen. ‘You’re not worried about invading Herosians, are you? Unarmed is pretty useless against laser rifles.’

‘Huh? Oh! Oh no. I mean, I guess it might be useful for self-defence, but no. It’s for Dillon.’

‘Dillon?’

‘Yeah. After last night… I’ve seen that look before. The “kid in a candy store” grin? The last time he was like that was when Ella got her boobs done. I am not getting breast implants, not even for him, but I’ll learn to throw him around and play at topping him.’

‘It’s very good for fitness training too,’ Ella pointed out.

‘Uh… okay,’ Aneka said. ‘There’s a dojo at the university. Not that they call it a dojo, but it’ll do. I’ll see if I can book a regular slot, and then I’ll start selling tickets.’

Ella and Katelyn both looked at her. ‘Tickets?’ came out simultaneously from both.

‘Well yeah. You two practising wrestling and judo… Maybe I can get one of the networks interested…’

Ella threw a pillow at her.

University of New Earth, 3.12.528 FSC.

‘I have taken receipt of a message from Senator Ollander,’ Al announced as Aneka was waiting in line for coffee.

‘Ollander sent a message to me?’

‘Yes. An encrypted message. Diplomatic grade encryption unlocked by your personal key. She seems to have taken pains to ensure that Mister Dowler does not read it.’

‘Right… How long until he breaks the encryption?’

‘Winter suspects that he has a Xinti-tech code hacker available. Two days, perhaps a little longer.’

Aneka frowned. ‘I hope there isn’t anything too secret in it. Play it.’

Ollander’s model-class face appeared in a window in Aneka’s vision field. Aneka was fairly sure that the woman had not slept her way into her current position, but her looks had done nothing to harm her career. Jenlay loved attractive people who showed that they knew they were. It was kind of annoying.

‘I’d imagine you’re wondering why I’m sending this to you,’ Ollander’s recording said. ‘I received a cryptic suggestion and you’re the one person I can think of who fits the bill. I need you to pass this information along to Elroy when he gets there, but my informant also suggested you might be able to get it to people who needed to know.’

Well, that was pretty cryptic in and of itself. What was the woman up to?

‘If things go bad, the Torem are highly likely to stay out of it. They’re too busy trying to keep their species alive to worry that the Herosians will use them as mop-up practice once they’ve hit the Jenlay. They would fight back if attacked, but the Herosians are likely to just come after the Jenlay.’

‘Mutual non-aggression pact,’ Aneka mused. ‘That worked so well for the Soviets.’

‘My informant thinks all, or a big majority, of the Herosian Senators don’t know about the rogue frigates. I have to admit that the ones I’ve seen here seem genuinely outraged or confused. The belligerent ones are looking for something non-Herosian to blame. The others just don’t get it. But, that doesn’t mean most of the military aren’t involved in what’s going on. Herosian politicians tend to end up doing it because no one else will. Their job is making sure the Herosians aren’t disadvantaged commercially. It’s not exactly impossible that they’ve been left entirely out of the loop.’

The Senator managed a smile, if a rather bleak one. ‘Hopefully I’ll be back on New Earth soon. Don’t forget, you’ve still got a date to bring that lovely partner over to visit me and mine.’ The image froze as the recording cut off.

‘Package that up, re-encrypt it, send it to Winter through the usual route,’ Aneka said. She looked blankly at the young man behind the counter for a second and then spoke to him. ‘Three black coffees, one with caramel.’

‘Sure thing, Miss Jansen. Are you okay?’

‘Send a message to Elaine, invite her and Justine over to our place tonight,’ Aneka said to Al. Aloud she said, ‘Things on my mind.’

‘The Herosian thing, right?’ The kid’s name was Kelvin. He thought he knew her, given the amount of times he had made coffee for her. He had even got over his fixation with her breasts now. Most of the time anyway. ‘They’re saying they’ll be able to work things out without it coming to blows. That’s good, right?’

Aneka nodded. ‘Jaw, jaw is better than war, war. Bit of a free Old Earth history lesson there for you.’

He was quiet for a moment, busying himself with the machines. Jenlay science seemed to have overcomplicated a system which had been overcomplicated back in her time.

‘You’ve fought in wars, right?’ Kelvin asked during a lull in the process.

‘More like I’ve fought during the aftermath, but yeah.’

‘It would be bad, wouldn’t it? If it happened. It would be bad.’

Aneka looked at him for a second. ‘Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that,’ she said.

~~~

‘Would the Torem really just stand aside and let the Herosians start a war with us?’ Ella asked, frowning across the desk at Gillian.

‘They are very long-lived,’ Gillian replied, ‘but they have very few fertile females and a low birth rate. Replacing lost people is difficult for them. They’re dying, they know it, and they would likely rather run than face another conflict like the Xinti War.’

‘Why the lack of children?’ Aneka asked.

‘They’re rather closed-lipped about it, but it’s thought that it was some sort of disease. A retrovirus of some sort, perhaps. There were rumours that they’d done it to themselves. An attempt to engineer greater disease resistance backfired and their immune systems can’t tolerate pregnancy. However, their failure to fix it suggests the disease theory is more likely.’

‘It’s the fertile females I feel sorry for,’ Ella said. Aneka gave her a questioning look and she went on. ‘They’re basically considered state property. They’re paid to make babies! I mean, they don’t even raise them themselves most of the time because they take a long time to mature and they’re pregnant as soon as possible after the birth. It’s a really horrible way to live.’

‘Huh. Just think, you could have ended up the same way on Odanari,’ Aneka pointed out.

‘That hadn’t escaped my mind, no.’

‘Okay, so we can’t count on the Torem if the Herosians can’t be talked into submission.’ Aneka sighed. ‘I’d better hop a shuttle up to the Hand of God… I really wish they’d picked a different name for that ship.’

‘Want me to come too? We’re not doing much here.’ Ella glanced at Gillian for confirmation and got a nod.

‘No,’ Aneka said, ‘I want you to go shopping. Get some food in; we’re having Elaine and Justine around for dinner.’

BC-101 Hand of God.

Abby and Tasker listened to Aneka’s news in silence. The Captain looked thoughtful afterward, letting Abby speak.

‘I’ll send the data on to Prime City. They’ll need to decide whether they want to commit forces if it comes to a war.’ The black-haired girl looked unsure about the answer she would get.

‘What do you think they’ll do?’ Aneka asked.

‘Well we don’t exactly have an overabundance of people,’ Tasker said. ‘Our fighting force is basically the ex-Enforcers we’ve moved from police duty to space. We need to leave an effective fleet back home in case the Pinnacle does notice we’re back on the map and we can’t afford to lose too many ships or men.’

Aneka nodded and looked at Abby. ‘Don’t include any form of recommendation from me, unless it’s to make a choice based on a good assessment of the situation.’

Abby nodded in turn. ‘There is a valid case to be made for helping, I think. The Herosians have attacked us in our own back yard. They clearly see us as a threat. If we help the Jenlay fight them here, we may stop them from bothering us at home.’

‘That’s a good strategic idea,’ Tasker agreed. ‘A united front now stops them getting us by sheer numbers later.’

‘Yeah,’ Aneka said. ‘It’s a shame the Torem don’t see it that way.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

‘Is Winter ever going to tell Elaine about herself, and you?’ Aneka was sitting on the couch with Justine. She was pretty sure that Truelove was not going to hear what she said because she was keeping her voice low, and because Ella was ‘entertaining’ the blonde analyst in the time-honoured Jenlay fashion.

‘Elaine already suspects something is up,’ Justine replied. ‘One of my twins visited her after the assassination. She recognised me, but there was me acting as though I’d never seen her. She’s never said anything, but she suspects.’

‘What’s she waiting for then? Winter, I mean.’

‘I think she’s setting Elaine up to head the FSA, or whatever we end up with when this is over. She’ll make herself known when she’s ready, I’ve no doubt. For now Elaine’s safer not knowing.’

‘Huh. I wish I didn’t. I really just wanted a normal life, you know?’

‘I know. Unfortunately we’ve been cursed to live in interesting times.’

Aneka sighed. ‘Five hundred years of peace and tranquillity, and I get woken up just before the fighting starts. Get your clothes off before this gets any more depressing.’

BC-101 Hand of God, 25.12.528 FSC.

The Hand of God had a two thousand tonne pressurised cargo bay which Bashford, Monkey, Delta, and a few of the crew had spent the last couple of days turning into Party Central. The ship also had a big nanofac system, quite capable of manufacturing everything they needed aside from the food, which Aneka, Gillian, Ella, and Janna had been assisting with.

The most important thing that the cruiser had was space, as in a vacuum all around it, and several hundred kilometres of distance between it and the planet below. No one who had been invited had declined, and they had all been happy with the stipulation that the ship was to be considered a ‘no politics’ zone until the New Year celebrations were over with.

It was not like anything much had happened anyway. Twenty-five days of talking had resulted in nothing happening, very slowly. The Jenlay Admiralty had wanted to move ships up to the border area with Herosian space, but this had been vetoed as too provocative. The Herosians had apparently had ‘no luck’ discovering the hideouts of the ‘rogue element’ in their own navy, despite having ‘all their best personnel devoted full time to the task.’ That was going down like a pile of manure at a garden party.

The longer it took for nothing to happen, the more Aneka became convinced something was going to happen, and it was going to be explosive. She was really hoping that a Christmas party, with a lot of people who actually remembered what Christmas was, would take her mind off the impending doom.

So far things were proceeding according to plan. The Guardians did not drink, but they were slotting a mild euphoric chip before turning up at the large tent, which had been erected for the party, and the effect was much the same. They were operating a rolling duty roster so that there was always a skeleton crew working; when they popped the chip out they were instantly sober so they could be partying one minute and fully functional the next. The Jenlay and Abby were imbibing quite happily, and had no need to be sober, so it was all going well for them.

That left Aneka, Al, and Cassandra as the only sober people in the room, and they spent more than a little time together watching the ‘antics of the organics,’ as Al put it. Aneka generally did not indulge in that kind of thing, mostly because she liked to think of herself as an honorary organic. Somehow it seemed appropriate at the moment.

‘Ensuring that the tent could handle a hull breach was a good idea,’ Cassandra commented.

‘Well, Jenlay can’t go to a party in clothes that could be classified as decent,’ Aneka replied. ‘Of course, Jenlay shipsuits are not exactly decorous, but Ella would have been mortified if she couldn’t wear heels.’

‘Abby and the Captain look very good in the gowns you bought them.’

Aneka picked out the two figures among the crowd. Abby was wearing a clinging, gossamer gown in red with a split from the right hip to the hem. Tasker was in a white, Ultraskin tube. She had been less than enthusiastic, arguing that she needed to do a duty shift like everyone else. Her XO had polled the crew and then told her that they had all agreed that she did not. She had not taken a day off since before the ship went live and they considered it a matter of mental health that she let her hair down once a year at least. So Tasker was in the dress and Janna was making a valiant attempt to persuade her that real ecstasy was far better than her fake, electronic ecstasy. Aneka wished her luck on that.

‘They do. The crew seem to be enjoying their presents too.’

‘I’m not sure they understood the concept of foolish tourist presents,’ Al said, ‘but they do appear to be amused.’

Every single crewman was arriving at the party in the same T-shirt. It was black, made of a mesh fabric, and emblazoned with the words ‘I Went To Yorkbridge. See? I’ve Got The T-Shirt.’ Well, they were not all the same. At Ella’s insistence the female crew had got cropped shirts while the men’s ones were tighter. She said it was more Jenlay, even if the Guardians had practically no sex drive.

‘Here’s a funny thought for you two,’ Aneka said as that thought hit her, which actually meant Al already knew what she was going to say. ‘The Jenlay make this big deal of not caring about looks, because they’re not ugly unless they want to be. That’s just posturing, because they do care, quite a lot. The city people back on Earth really don’t care how anyone looks, because they’re doped up on cyberdrugs and don’t have sex anymore.’

‘Interesting,’ Cassandra mused. ‘Jenlay hypocrisy versus an addiction to artificial stimulation. Obviously, given my nature, I’m inclined to believe that a healthy sex life is better. I’m also inclined to believe that the Jenlay have taken the idea of a healthy sex life a little too far.’

‘It doesn’t appear to have harmed Ella,’ Al commented, ‘or Katelyn and Dillon who seem to be more extreme than she is. Mixing the two forms of stimulation caused problems, but that was not Ella’s fault.’

‘What are you three up to?’ Ella, clad in a tight, high-collared Ultraskin mini-dress, had managed to sneak up on them. Well, not really.

‘There’s only two of them?’ Abby said as she circled around to stand beside the little redhead.

‘When Aneka and Cassandra are together,’ Ella replied, ‘then Al’s part of the conversation. And they’re usually talking about the weird things the squishy organics are doing.’

‘In this case,’ Aneka said, ‘we were discussing you and your deviant sexual proclivities.’

‘Fridgy,’ Ella replied, grinning. ‘I persuaded Abby to sing for us; we just need to find something she can do without accompaniment and Al’s got that collection of music from Prime City…’

‘I’m still not sure about this,’ Abby said. ‘In front of all these people, alone, without accompaniment…’

Al was showing Aneka some text in-vision. The AIs had a plan sorted out in the time it took for Abby to state her fears. ‘You know something called “The Sisters of Mercy,” Abby?’ Aneka asked.

‘Uh, yes. I used to sing it with my mother. It needs two fairly well-matched voices…’

‘I don’t believe I can take the place of your mother,’ Cassandra said, ‘but I’d love to sing it with you.’

‘Uh… it does need matched voices…’

Cassandra smiled and climbed to her feet, the flowing white gown she was wearing shifting around her legs. ‘Dear, I’m a robot, you start and by the time it’s my part I’ll be perfectly in tune.’ She stepped forward and Abby was swept along before she could respond.

Chuckling, Aneka got up and followed them, the glowing beads which formed her dress shifting to catch up with the sudden movement. Ella licked her lips appreciatively, so Aneka rolled her eyes. ‘Deviant sexual proclivities,’ Aneka said before walking out to where Abby and Cassandra were standing.

She raised her voice to parade ground level. ‘Let’s have some quiet!’ The room fell into near total silence in a fraction of a second. ‘Wow, I wish I’d had that kind of discipline when I was in the Army. All right, you may not know this, but your ambassador is quite the singer, and we also have a talented and very sexy AI here too, so in the spirit of Christmas homemade entertainment, they’re going to sing for us.’ She turned and nodded encouragingly to Abby.

The black-haired teenager smiled weakly, looked out at the crowd, swallowed hard, and opened her mouth…

~~~

‘I’ve, uh, never seen Enforcers cry before,’ Tasker said.

‘Blame it on the cyberdrugs,’ Aneka suggested. ‘I have to admit that I didn’t really think they were capable. The black uniforms. The whole getting shot with a pulse rifle several times…’

‘One of us did that to you?’

‘He was under orders. It hurt, but… Well, he didn’t get to enjoy his victory.’

Aneka had not really expected that to go down well, but Tasker said, ‘We were basically well-trained and equipped thugs back then. She kept a tight leash on us. We were…’

‘Brainwashed, I know. I saw the re-education programme running after she died.’

‘Huh. Well, things changed, and there was a bit of time there when we didn’t know what was going to happen to us, but we’re needed. We’ve got a purpose, you know? That makes a lot of difference.’

‘Uh-huh. Apparently it drives you to tears at the sound of a couple of sopranos.’

‘It was a really beautiful rendition. Music appreciation wasn’t a major part of our training, but that was worth appreciating, and oh my God is that woman ever going to give up?’

Aneka followed Tasker’s gaze and saw Janna making her way toward them. ‘Janna? She can be very persistent.’

‘She seems to want to get me into bed. I tried to explain that we don’t really do a lot of that sort of thing…’

‘And that just made her try harder.’

‘Uh… yeah. She’s getting closer.’ The Captain actually sounded a little nervous. A woman who could probably snap your spine in two was nervous of an ex-stripper.

‘Okay, two choices. I can talk to her. She’d listen to me. She would probably keep at it just to tease you, but she wouldn’t be serious.’

‘I could cope with that,’ Tasker said warily, ‘but you said two options.’

‘Uh-huh. Alternatively, go to bed with her. It’ll be her and her partner. I’m guessing you’d never sleep with two women under any circumstances you can think of. From what I’ve heard they’ll make you feel like you’ve died and gone to heaven, and in the morning you can go back to being Captain Tasker, who doesn’t do that sort of thing.’ She checked Janna’s position. Al estimated five seconds to arrival. ‘Of course, it’s up to you.’

‘Aneka, Charley, what are you chatting about?’ Janna said as she walked up. She was being Janna. She was in heels so high they should have caused a nose bleed and a dress composed of finely woven silver threads which did not do much to obscure the body beneath.

‘We were talking about you, actually,’ Aneka replied.

The elder Narrows’ eyes narrowed a tiny amount and her head tilted a little to the right. ‘Nothing bad I hope?’

Aneka was about to say something when Tasker stepped forward, slipping her arm into Janna’s. She was a little stiff about it, and Janna looked a little surprised. ‘Nothing bad at all,’ Tasker said. ‘Aneka was just, uh, pointing out that my crew has made me take the night off.’

‘I’ve heard a few of them saying that you work too hard.’

‘They’re probably right. I understand you’re a dancer…’

Aneka wandered away, smiling. And hoping she had not just caused an enormous political incident.

26.12.528 FSC.

‘So the Captain seems to have vanished,’ Ella commented. She was sitting with Aneka and Cassandra at the side of the room watching Guardians dance to loud music. It was a little surreal.

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka replied.

‘So have my mother and Sharissa.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘And Abby’s gone missing along with Kat and Dillon.’

‘That does seem to be the case,’ Cassandra agreed. ‘I was a little surprised about the Captain.’

‘Sometimes it’s nice to not be yourself for a few hours,’ Aneka said.

‘And you suggested that to her?’

‘I… pointed out it was an option.’

Ella giggled. ‘Any plans for tonight, Cassandra?’

‘Not plans, no. I wouldn’t presume to plan.’

‘The bed in our room is quite large. And I don’t think it’s a presumption. Christmas is supposed to be a family sort of time. It would be almost rude to leave you and Al out.’

Aneka chuckled. ‘Just remember you need to sleep at some point.’

~~~

Neither Al nor Cassandra slept, however. Aneka emerged from her offline state into a confusion of sensation as her diagnostics scrolled past showing various abnormal readings and her body strained. It took her a second to figure out that Cassandra’s long, powerful, and very flexible tongue was at work inside her. Slowly, grindingly, thrusting…

Biting her lips and clenching her fists to keep from screaming out loud, and so waking Ella, Aneka felt the wash of orgasm burning through her like a forest fire.

‘H-how long have you been d-doing that?’ she mumbled as she came down.

‘A couple of hours,’ Cassandra said, sliding onto the bed beside her. ‘Sorry, Al was supposed to tell me when you were going to wake up, but…’

‘I think you broke him. He’s very quiet. I think you almost broke me!’

‘Sorry…’

‘Don’t apologise it was… I wonder if it recorded.’

‘Uh… why?’

‘Ella’s still asleep and I can play it back to her…’

‘Two hours of my tongue…’

‘Huh, you’re right. Silly idea.’

‘Yes, I think…’

‘That’s far too long. Maybe if we play it back at double speed…’ Cassandra was looking at her funny. ‘What? It’s Christmas.’

Senate Grand Forum, 1.1.529 FSC.

‘As this old year turns and the new one begins, we give thanks for all that has been, and look forward to all that is to come. The Long Dark is gone and we look into the light. Let this First Day be the first of many where we strive to be the best we can be and fight to keep the darkness at bay.’

Ollander raised the glass she was holding and drank from it. The words of the Renewal had never felt quite so important. The eldest member of the Senate, a Torem of course, had made the little speech. A Jenlay had spoken it the first time, five hundred and twenty-nine years ago, when there had been so much hope for the future.

‘Things do not seem so hopeful this Renewal.’

Ollander turned to see Yakis standing just behind her and had to look a long way up to see his face. Torem had little clue when it came to personal space. ‘We’re not fighting,’ she said, putting a smile on her face and knowing it did not reach her eyes.

‘Yes.’ He took a sip from his glass. ‘I am leaving for my home station later today. Might I suggest that New Earth could use its Senator at home also?’

She looked at him, trying not to frown. Did he know something, or was this just Torem caution? ‘I’ll… consider that.’

Yakis bowed his head and turned away. ‘Don’t consider it too long, Senator.’

Ollander watched him ambling off toward one of the exits. She put her own glass down and headed for another door, pulling her PDA from her bag. First she would call the Navy base and have her yacht made ready to leave, and then she would call the local escort service. She did not feel like being alone for the rest of the night.

BC-101 Hand of God.

‘All hands… Happy Federal New Year!’

A cheer went up throughout the party tent. Tasker had made the announcement after Aneka had been poked into saying the Renewal once again. The cheer was welcome; the silence as Aneka had spoken the words being spoken all over the Federation had been, somehow, more intense than usual.

‘Of course,’ Tasker said, ‘it’s not New Year back home. We’re getting all carried away about this, but we’re celebrating the New Year in a different calendar.’

‘No one ever complained about too much celebration,’ Aneka replied.

‘Seems a little muted for a celebration.’

Aneka looked across at the slightly smaller group of Jenlay who were still aboard the Hand of God. They were… not as enthusiastic about joining the party atmosphere as they had been five days earlier. ‘They’re worried,’ she said. ‘Worried that that might be the last time they hear those words.’

‘A cheery thought. Maybe I should take Janna and Sharissa to bed again.’

Aneka raised her eyebrows. ‘Are you telling me you’d actually consider that?’

‘I’m saying that it was an interesting and enjoyable experience, and that I’ve suggested to some of the crew that they should… broaden their entertainment spectrum away from the purely electronic.’

‘Good,’ Aneka said, grinning broadly. ‘Just don’t go all Jenlay on me. I think there’s a happy medium somewhere between you and them.’

Tasker laughed. ‘Tell Janna that.’

Mercy Island, Obati IV.

Ollander slipped out of bed leaving the thickly muscled, black-skinned young man she had hired for the night sleeping. It had been worth it. He had been good, and she had forgotten all about Yakis’ warning until her eyes had opened again.

Now, with the dawn light hitting the thin, white drapes over her windows, it all came back. In an hour she would go to the spaceport and leave on a shuttle. She wondered whether she should take the sleeping man with her for a second, but decided against it. There were crewmen on the diplomatic yacht who could provide the same service if she needed it, and people would wonder why on New Earth she was taking a prostitute off the planet. In truth, she was getting a terrible feeling that she would be saving him, and that was why she had considered it.

Ignoring the chill in the early morning air, she opened the window and walked out onto the balcony. The cool breeze caressed her bare skin and she shivered once on the way to the railing. Out there, across a stretch of ocean about eight kilometres wide, was the Senate Grand Forum. She could just about make out the white buildings.

It had been built… No, this whole world had been devoted to keeping peace between the three major races of the galaxy. Had it failed? Had it ever really had a chance of succeeding? She shook her head. It had not actually failed yet. The beams had not started firing. There were no bombs dropping…

Something caught her attention and she looked up. A flare of light, high up in the atmosphere like lightning in the clear, blue sky. She saw another, then another.

‘Oh Vashma,’ she breathed, ‘I left it too late.’

Ahead of her the white building turned whiter and she wondered whether Yakis had left in time. The chill was gone from the air, replaced by sudden, heavy heat. She was never going to see New Earth again.

And then she was little more than a cinder painted on the side of her residence.

Part Four: The Slow War

Yorkbridge Mid-town, New Earth, 3.1.529 FSC.

It was all over every news network. Aneka watched the screen dumbly, Sharissa sitting beside her. Ella and Janna were in the kitchen, keeping themselves busy because they knew they would lose it if they focussed on the news channels.

‘There is still no news from Obati,’ the reporter was saying. ‘All contact was lost with the Federation’s political hub yesterday and, at this time, it seems unlikely that communications failure can be to blame. However, considering the distances involved that cannot be ruled out. The last report from Obati by Alexander Hook indicated a sombre atmosphere had fallen over the Halls of Power.’

The view cut to Hook, standing outside the main Senate building, a vast, white structure, all sweeping curves and elegant architecture.

‘Senator Loktis of the Torem spoke the words of the Renewal here tonight,’ Hook said to camera, ‘in front of an audience that seemed somehow more silent than at any other time in the life of the Federation. With the words spoken and the traditional drink taken, the assembled Senators appeared subdued. There has been little in the way of progress on the Herosian situation in the past month. An undercurrent of tension has become apparent even to those outside the circle of politicians. Everyone seems to be wondering what this newly born year will bring.’

The channel’s newsreader reappeared. ‘The last message to come out of the high-speed FTL system arrived at New Earth…’

‘Mute,’ Aneka snapped, and the screen went silent. ‘They’re just recycling stuff we already know.’

‘They’ve been doing that most of the day,’ Sharissa pointed out.

Aneka grunted a response. ‘How long before we know anything solid?’

‘Sixteen to eighteen days, if it’s just a comms failure. The Xinti FTL system is a lot faster than our normal channels.’

‘We basically skipped a couple of generations of technology,’ Ella supplied.

‘If it’s something else,’ Sharissa went on, ‘we could be looking at a longer wait. Added time for relays, maybe waiting for an escaped ship to call in…’

‘This is bad,’ Aneka said softly. ‘This is really bad.’

5.1.529 FSC.

‘Peacekeeper forces were deployed outside the Herosian embassy today to control a growing crowd of citizens.’ Aneka was now wearing an almost perpetual frown while watching the news. The latest reports were not improving her mood. ‘The numbers have been growing for the past two days, but the mid-week break has resulted in a sudden increase in those protesting against Herosian acts of terrorism in Jenlay space.’

The screen switched to show some random citizen in a leather jacket and mesh T-shirt. ‘We know they’ve been attacking our ships. We want to know what they’ve done to the Senate.’

The presenter reappeared, his demeanour calm and dispassionate. ‘Ambassador D’Jarnis released a statement this afternoon stating that he had had no official statement from the Herosian government and that, until he did, he could only reiterate that the Herosians were a peaceful people and that they would not start a war. There has been no comment from the Administration here on New Earth other than to repeat that they are waiting for news from Obati.’

‘Were you expecting this?’ Ella asked. She looked worried too, and that was a bad sign.

‘You’re the psychologist,’ Aneka replied. ‘What’s worse? Knowing you’re at war, or not knowing, but thinking you might be?’

‘Right. Things might escalate before we get solid answers.’

‘And if the Peacekeepers have to restrain protesters to stop them invading the embassy it’s going to look bad. People will lose confidence in their policing agency…’

‘Jenlay are naturally pretty peaceful. It might not come to that.’

‘No, it might not.’

‘Call from Gillian Gilroy,’ the computer announced.

‘Put it through,’ Ella responded immediately. ‘Gillian?’ she asked as soon as the woman’s image appeared on the screen.

Gillian was looking nervous. Her classical, olive-skinned features were wrinkled by a frown. ‘Hello you two. I’ve persuaded David and Delta to come out to stay with us. I was wondering whether you wanted to join the party.’

‘We’re safe enough here,’ Aneka replied. ‘Winter beefed up the security on this block.’

‘I was more concerned about the kind of thing a bit of added security can’t handle. If they start dropping bombs, Mid-town is a likely target for first strike. Aim there and you’ll do extensive damage throughout the city, but out here…’

‘They aren’t going to be dropping anything any time soon. That’s assuming they do it ever. We still don’t know.’

‘I know, but…’

‘You’re worried. I get it.’ Aneka glanced at Ella and then went on. ‘Look, we’ll come out there, but only for a couple of days. We’ll get drunk… We’ll get you drunk and persuade Ella to do something inappropriate, and then things will get back to more or less normal.’

Gillian smiled, which was good. ‘It’ll be nice to have you here. We’ll see you in an hour or so.’ The screen went black.

‘Things will be back to normal?’ Ella asked as she got to her feet.

‘More or less normal,’ Aneka replied. ‘There’s a difference.’

Tristar Township, 6.1.529 FSC.

‘…deployed construction foam barricades early in the afternoon as tensions continued to rise.’

The news was depressing, to say the least. The video under the voice showed Peacekeepers in their distinctive blue body armour and helmets pouring the dense foam between light, plastic formers to create low walls in front of the gate of the Herosian embassy compound. The crowd looked… restive.

‘Rumours of arrests at the rear entrance spread quickly through the crowd, though the news was denied by officials and there have been no arrest notices filed with any Peacekeeper station. At fifteen hundred, riot gas was deployed as masked rioters attacked the cordon with makeshift weapons. The use of sonic dispersion weapons was approved shortly afterward. Peacekeeper Representatives have reported that fleeing rioters were marked with tracer chemicals. Anyone noticing the distinctive scent should report it.’

‘Rioting,’ Gillian said. ‘This is what I was hoping wouldn’t happen…’

‘Wait for it…’ Aneka said, still frowning at the screen.

The picture cut to some sort of burning building. There was signage above the shattered front windows, but it was now blackened and unreadable. ‘Homemade incendiary devices were used to destroy Sh’Thoris Imports in Downtown this evening. No one was in the building, which was gutted by the fire which Peacekeeper responders said was “unusually fierce.”’

‘And the victimisation starts earlier than I’d expected,’ Aneka said.

‘Head of the Federal Security Agency, Marcus Dowler, has put a request before the Administration to declare a state of civil emergency. This would allow the limited deployment of Marines to assist the Peacekeepers, make large public gatherings illegal, and allow for a night-time curfew to be enacted. The request has been refused but High Yorkbridge Representative Frederick Isherwood called for restraint from the citizenry…’

Isherwood was a typical Jenlay politician, or one of the archetypes anyway. Elroy followed the distinguished gentleman model. Isherwood looked good on camera. ‘At this time we have no news on the situation on Obati and the Administration would like to reiterate that there have been no aggressive acts made by any Herosians currently living on New Earth. Unfortunately, if this unprecedented level of unruly behaviour continues, we will be required to take stronger measures to regain control.’

‘I’m going to go out on a limb here,’ Aneka said, ‘and suggest that your politicians aren’t used to dealing with any form of crisis.’

‘A crisis to most of them is not having the right wine for a dinner with business reps,’ Drake said. Drake and Shannon had turned up late the previous evening, primarily because of Shannon. Gillian’s home was out on the edge of the city and the telepathic pilot had to deal with fewer depressed minds around her. Even so, she was not in the room; she was spending much of her time in the back yard. Aneka was on duty to take her drinks when required since Shannon could not hear her mind.

‘Basically,’ Ella commented, ‘he just admitted they’ve lost control, and it sounds like he’s making excuses for the Herosians.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka said.

‘We need Elroy back here,’ Gillian said. ‘He can handle a crisis.’

‘It might be too late by the time he does get back,’ Aneka replied, ‘and did anyone else think Dowler was a little quick to push the state of emergency thing?’

‘Calling in the Marines this early would probably do more harm than good,’ Bashford agreed.

‘Those arrest rumours?’ Monkey said, sounding uncertain. ‘You, uh, don’t think…’

‘Someone started them,’ Aneka said. ‘Of course, it could have been anyone. I just don’t like the way Dowler jumped on it. And attacking Herosian businesses this soon?’

‘The report did say it was a bad burn,’ Monkey said. ‘That doesn’t sound like a normal accelerant…’

‘Look who’s been studying demolitions recently,’ Bashford commented, but he picked up a phone near where he was standing. ‘Old buddy of mine from the Navy went into forensics when he left. Best explosive ordnance technician the Peacekeepers have. He’s probably on the case…’

~~~

‘How are you doing?’ Aneka asked as she walked out to where Shannon was sitting, two drinks in her hands.

‘Oh… Not too bad. The headache’s gone at least.’ The blonde pilot took her drink, smiling a thank you. ‘I assume the news hasn’t improved? I’m still getting hints of annoyance and frustration from the house every so often.’

‘Actually, we’ve detected an undercurrent of conspiracy to go with the rest of the problems.’

‘Oh?’

‘Bash called an old friend in the Peacekeepers about a Herosian business that was firebombed. Monkey thought the fire sounded odd. Turns out that the FSA has taken over the investigation. They’re calling it “domestic terrorism” so it falls under their purview.’

‘Which is true…’

‘Yeah, but the guy had done some preliminary work and he thinks it was high-end military tech, not some citizens with Molotov cocktails.’

‘I’m going to assume that’s a firebomb of some sort and move on.’

‘It’s a bottle full of petrol with a burning rag stuffed in it.’ Aneka gave a little shrug. ‘There are some variations, but that’s the most basic form.’

‘It sounds crude.’

‘Crude, but effective, and a favourite of rioters the world over. In my time, obviously; petrol is harder to get your hands on now. Simple to make, relatively easy to deploy, and quite effective at disrupting police lines or destroying property. Bash’s friend thinks the accelerant in this case burned far hotter, and he said the responders had trouble putting the fire out, that suggests phosphorous, or something similar, in the mix.’

‘There are plenty of chemicals that’ll burn without oxygen. They usually need some sort of catalyst though which would probably survive the fire…’

‘And the arsonist wouldn’t want that being discovered,’ Aneka said, nodding.

‘You don’t seem terribly surprised that the FSA is covering this up,’ Shannon commented.

‘I’m a little surprised they’re getting away with it. And that Elaine hasn’t managed to weed out all the paid-off agents yet.’

‘Telepathy isn’t a perfect solution. You can get around it with the right training. Or they’re making it hard for her to get everyone checked out. She’s on it and they probably just exposed some more people for her to go after.’

‘Let’s hope so.’

High Yorkbridge, 7.1.529 FSC.

‘You’re worried,’ Truelove said to the assembled Representatives, ‘I get that. But this is no time to be allowing potential enemies to go undetected. Exactly the opposite. And it’s no time to be making snap decisions based on incomplete, raw data…’

‘Are you saying we are acting without due consideration, Agent Truelove?’

Truelove frowned at the speaker. Brittany Usher was a rising star in the Administration, one of two subordinate Representatives under Frederick Isherwood. Attractive as she was, the blonde woman had never used her looks to progress up the ranks; she had found money and influence to be more useful tools. Truelove had files on all the members of the FSA Oversight Committee, but Usher’s was the thickest.

‘Do you want me to say that, Representative?’ Truelove replied. ‘Examine the facts. We do not know why Obati is off-net, but you are pushing forward measures assuming that we are in a state of conflict. Despite that you are asking that an operation designed to eliminate internal threats to the Federation’s security organisation be suspended rather than accelerated. Does that not sound ill-considered to you?’

‘I’ll remind you, Agent, that we are here to oversee the operations of the FSA…’

‘No,’ Truelove stated flatly.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘This committee’s remit is to provide political oversight of FSA operations and activities. It is not to second-guess operational decisions and priorities.’

‘Administrator Dowler has made a clear case for the re-prioritisation of resources to search out the perpetrators of these acts of terrorism on the streets of this city,’ Usher snapped. ‘We are not questioning the priorities of the FSA, we are questioning yours.’

‘Representatives,’ Truelove said, trying hard to keep her voice level, ‘you and Administrator Dowler are politicians, not intelligence analysts or agents. If you were, you would, perhaps, know that you can’t clean someone else’s house while your own is covered in gopi.’

‘Our recommendation stands, Agent Truelove,’ Usher said. There was far too much light in her eyes.

Truelove took a deep breath and stood. ‘In that case, you will be receiving notification of my resignation within the next couple of days. I will, of course, be required to work through the next month to hand over to my replacement. I will be compiling a full report on the current state of the Agency and the interference of this committee to be handed over to Senator Elroy upon his return. Good day, Representatives.’

The light was still there in Usher’s eyes as Truelove walked out of the committee room, but there was a wrinkle in the woman’s brow as well. She had been hoping for the resignation, yes, but the report was an unexpected diversion in the planned trajectory.

‘Hear any of that?’ Truelove asked Justine as she picked her up in the corridor outside.

‘Are you trying to get yourself killed?’ Justine replied.

‘Of course not. I just don’t want you getting bored.’

‘Then buy some exotic underwear.’

Truelove gave her bodyguard a quick grin. ‘I might just do that, but no, I’m not trying to get myself killed. If they tie my hands and listen to Dowler over me then there’s nothing much I can do aside from worry them. I’m hoping that Elroy will come back, tell me I’m not allowed to resign, and beat all of them over the head until they stop being assholes.’

‘They’re politicians, Elaine,’ Justine replied wryly, ‘they actually do have a genetic disposition toward being assholes or they wouldn’t get the job.’

Tristar Township.

Truelove sat on a seat in Gillian’s back yard looking pensive. This was probably because she had Aneka, Justine, and Sharissa staring at her with frowns on their faces. ‘I’ve made my mind up, you know? If Elroy asks me to stay, and countermands the committee, then I’ll stay, but I’m not going to change my mind about this.’ It was a good, solid, determined statement, right until she added, ‘Really I’m not.’

‘Someone has to be keeping an eye on Dowler,’ Sharissa pointed out.

‘If the committee is too scared of civil unrest to face facts, then there’s no point in watching him. He’ll feed their fears and they’ll do what he says. We need Elroy to stamp his foot.’

‘She does actually have a valid point,’ Justine conceded.

‘How long before he’s back?’ Aneka asked.

‘He’s due in system on the seventeenth,’ Truelove supplied. ‘That’s well before my resignation will become final.’

‘Yeah, but that gives Dowler ten full days of unrestricted mayhem.’

Justine frowned and then appeared to come to a decision. ‘I’m going to make a call,’ she said. ‘I’ll be back shortly.’ She walked down to the end of the yard, keeping her distance from Shannon.

‘Who’s she going to call?’ Truelove asked.

Aneka looked over toward the dark-haired woman. ‘If I said “Ghostbusters” neither of you would get the joke anyway.’

~~~

It was getting quite late when the three women arrived at Gillian’s house. One of them was a short-haired brunette with dark eyes and a compact, muscular body dressed in a tight-fitting bodysuit and a long coat which hid the array of weapons she was carrying. The other two were hidden under hooded cloaks. They walked silently into the lounge of Gillian’s house to be stared at by the entire crew of the Garnet Hyde, and Janna, Sharissa, and Truelove.

The brunette moved over to the window where she looked like she was standing guard. Her two companions stood beside Justine who, along with Aneka and Ella, was one of the few people who seemed to have a clue what was going on.

‘We’re safe,’ the brunette said.

Justine nodded. ‘Nothing we say in the next little while leaves this room. It’s important. I mean, we’re trusting you with this, but it’s not a safe thing to know. By now Dowler will think none of you know, but still… Anyone who thinks they can’t handle that should probably leave. No questions asked.’

No one moved, or said anything, until Truelove asked, ‘What’s going on, Justine?’

‘I think we’d all like to know that,’ Drake added.

‘Okay…’ Justine said. ‘When you first saw me, Elaine, you recognised me. I’d talked to you before, but I acted as if we’d never met, yes?’

‘I thought it was a little odd, but we are, basically, spies.’

‘Actually, I had never met you. She did.’

The woman standing beside her pushed back her cowl to reveal another Justine, smiling, perfect in every detail. ‘Hello again, Elaine,’ she said, and the voice was a perfect match.

‘A… twin?’ Bashford said. ‘A clone?’

‘Clone is closer,’ Aneka said, ‘but these two are actually more different than, say, the new Justine and that brunette over there.’

‘I’m not getting this,’ Truelove said.

‘Yeah, well,’ Aneka replied, ‘she’s always had a bit of a flair for the over-dramatic revelation.’

‘Who?!’ It came from more than one mouth.

‘Aneka is referring to me.’ The second hooded figure revealed her face. There were the expected gasps. Winter, the Winter most of the people there knew had been killed by a sniper’s bullet to the head, was standing there, in Gillian’s front room, large as life. ‘I think Aneka should make the introductions,’ she said.

‘Thanks,’ Aneka responded. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Sleep Brings Renewal to All Things, but you can call all of them Winter, except for Justine Nivalis there. She’s actually a little different.’

There was silence for a second and then Truelove said, ‘I’m still a little confused.’

‘Sleep Brings Renewal to All Things was the AI the Xinti built to supervise the Human Uplift programme, Elaine,’ Gillian said. ‘She left Negral before the Federation was founded and… Well, apparently she helped found the Federation.’ She looked at Winter. ‘Am I wrong? You actually were Xenia Winter?’

‘You are not wrong, Doctor,’ Winter replied. ‘I’ve been using bodies like this one, avatars if you will, to run the FSA ever since.’

‘Which is why you seem to be able to get to wherever you’re needed so quickly,’ Drake said.

‘And it explains why your memory is so good,’ Truelove added.

Winter smiled. ‘After recent events I’ve had to retire this body. I brought it out because, frankly, I thought this was the only way you’d believe me. Now I’m using nine different forms, plus Justine here on occasion. Elaine’s Justine ran my safe house on Odanari for several years and did not get the periodic resynchronisation the others are subject to. She has a unique mind and I could not bring myself to terminate it when her job was done.’

‘A safe house on Odanari?’ Janna said. ‘Is that where you had my daughter hidden when they were supposedly in a cabin in a forest?’

‘Yeah,’ Ella said. ‘And that’s why me and Aneka knew about this. Sort of. I mean, Aneka’s sort of Winter’s daughter… In a very obscure way.’

‘All right,’ Drake said. ‘We accepted the other AIs from Negral, so I guess we can accept you, but why are you telling us this now?’

‘Because you are the only people I’m quite sure I can trust with the information,’ Winter replied, ‘and I’ll quite possibly need your trust in the future. The first step in trust is not keeping a rather important secret. And because I need Elaine to keep doing her job, and to know why she needs to keep doing it.’

‘I can’t back down now,’ Truelove said. ‘I’d just look weak.’

‘Quite true. You’re absolutely right that you need Elroy to come back and lay down the law. I expect him to be fairly sarcastic about what’s been happening without him and Ollander to keep things in check. You need to keep to your current position, but I think you’re going to need help.’

‘Uh… what kind of help?’

FSA Headquarters, High Yorkbridge, 8.1.529 FSC.

Dowler was smiling as he walked into his outer office. He stopped as soon as the door opened.

Truelove was there, siting at her desk and apparently very busy, but she was not alone. Sharissa Torrence was peering over her shoulder intently and a man from Internal Affairs, Grant Hoffman, was leaning against the wall watching them both. As Dowler moved into the room he glanced to the left and saw Justine sitting there, as always. She was watching Dowler.

‘Agent Truelove,’ Dowler said. Suddenly everyone was looking at him. ‘I understood you had resigned. Do I need to have you escorted from the building?’

‘That would be illegal, sir,’ Hoffman said. ‘According to regulations, Agent Truelove’s compilation of a final report requires that she do so with the supervision of the Security and Internal Affairs departments.’

‘We’ll also be supervising her handover to her replacement,’ Sharissa said, ‘and all activities in this office until she leaves.’

‘I see,’ Dowler said, trying and failing to keep the displeasure out of his voice. ‘I assume Agent Nivalis will be reassigned…’

‘Agent Truelove is still a member of this Agency and subject to the same strictures as before,’ Sharissa interrupted. ‘Now that she has resigned, Agent Nivalis will also be providing me with detailed reports of Agent Truelove’s activities outside the office.’

Dowler remained silent, marching past the little group and into his office.

Sharissa waited for the door to close before leaning forward and whispering into Truelove’s ear. ‘I’m looking forward to the reports. I haven’t read any decent porn in ages.’

Truelove went back to her work, trying very hard not to blush.

Downtown Yorkbridge, 15.1.529 FSC.

Aneka and Ella found a tall, slim, blonde woman sitting in a booth at the back of a bar which tried its best to look sleazy. That was the image the place was trying to project, though it somehow managed to come across as glossy with a dirty sheen. It did offer a sense of privacy, and Winter had undoubtedly swept the booth for bugging devices before selecting it.

‘Your message sounded urgent,’ Aneka said as she slid onto the bench beside the blonde.

‘It’s… urgent in a way,’ Winter replied.

‘Cryptic as usual.’

‘Sorry. I received some information yesterday which I need to follow up on personally.’

Ella frowned at her from across the table. ‘Personally as in…?’

‘I’m leaving the system. I’ll be out of contact for a while. Obviously I’ll still have avatars here, but…’

Aneka was frowning too. ‘Winter,’ she said through gritted teeth, ‘this is a really bad time to be running off chasing…’

‘I am aware of that, Aneka, but this… I can’t tell you what it is I’m looking into, but it is important. Possibly very important. If the Herosians have started a war, this could change the course of it.’

‘How long?’ Aneka sighed.

‘I’ll be out of touch for a couple of months, maybe longer depending on what I find.’

‘You can’t wait a couple of days to find out what happened on Obati?’

There was a tiny pause, probably too short for Ella to even notice it. Aneka did not think Winter already knew the answer, but her real brain, sitting in the core of a ship in the outer system, was a computer of incredible power capable of very complex, very detailed simulations. She had almost certainly run the numbers.

‘This cannot wait,’ Winter said. ‘This is going to be a slow war. The distances involved make moving large numbers of ships difficult. If my information is correct we’ll need all the time we can get to make use of it.’

Aneka nodded. ‘It isn’t like we can stop you.’

Ella reached across the table, clasping her hands over Winter’s. ‘Good luck,’ she said softly.

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 16.1.529 FSC.

‘Elroy should be in the system tomorrow,’ Ella said, trying to sound as bright as possible.

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka replied.

They were watching the news broadcast on CFM again. None of it was good. The protests outside the Herosian embassy continued to burst into sporadic violence. Herosian businesses had been attacked several times, as well as a couple of homes. People had died in those. So far there had been half a dozen arrests, but Aneka had started to notice a pattern; the arrested individuals all seemed to be copycats, people who had seen the previous attacks and followed suit. None of the people responsible for the deaths had been caught.

‘He can fix this,’ Ella suggested.

‘He might be able to fix some of it. Some of it is going to be hanging around for years. I almost hope there’s an actual war, otherwise some citizens are going to be feeling pretty stupid.’

‘You don’t really want a war.’

‘I don’t really want a war. I don’t really want this to be going on either, but this is what we’ve got.’

Ella sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the silent screen.

‘There’s nothing we can really do, is there?’ the redhead said.

‘Not really.’

‘I mean, there was Hunter and Humanity First, and you killed them. And there was Ardus Quint, and you killed him. And Yrimtan, and even those little things that attacked us on Idridia…’

‘There’s no one I can shoot to make this go away, love.’

There was more silence and then, ‘Maybe we could blow them up this time?’

Aneka barked out a laugh despite herself, yanked Ella into her lap, and kissed her. ‘I tell you what, if I can find someone to blow up, that’s just what we’ll do.’

FDCV Senator Alfresson, 17.1.529 FSC.

The intercom chimed for attention and Jackson Elroy leaned across his desk to tap the response button. ‘Speak,’ he snapped.

‘Sir, we dropped out of warp two minutes ago. We are ninety-two minutes out from dock.’ The speaker was the diplomatic yacht’s captain, an experienced man who was quite used to ferrying Elroy back and forth. The Senator’s temper never usually bothered him, but he sounded nervous. ‘We’re getting transmissions through from New Earth Control… I think you should see this.’

Frowning, Elroy flicked his monitor over to show the feeds the ship was receiving from the planet. After a second he transferred the feeds to his wall screen and his frown deepened. Then he hit the intercom button again. ‘I want Elaine Truelove waiting for me at the spaceport. Send the message now.’ He cut off the intercom without waiting for a reply and turned back to the screens, and his mood just got worse.

The Islands, New Earth.

‘We’ve heard nothing at all from Obati since the Renewal?’ Elroy asked. The tall, distinguished politician was staring out of the window of his lounge, apparently at a lounger that was set up beside the pool. His anger had abated as Truelove had explained the current situation, but there was something disquieting him.

‘No, sir,’ Truelove replied. ‘If it’s simply a failure in the high-speed relay system, then we might have heard something by now, but tomorrow is more likely.’

Elroy drew in a slow breath and turned from the window. ‘All right. I need you to rescind your resignation, effective immediately. I’ll put through the necessary paperwork to countermand the committee’s recommendations and put through an order to have the remainder of the clean-up operation completed.’

‘Sir, I’m not entirely sure that the telepaths have managed to find everyone who has been subverted.’

‘No, but finishing the programme will severely cripple their operations and we can work to discover any other moles the hard way. I would also be grateful if you could send a request through to the Old Earth vessel. I’d like to receive their representative here, if she’s willing to come down. Extend an invitation to Aneka Jansen and Ella Narrows to join me. I don’t want too big a meeting. If we’re going to get formal I’d prefer to throw a ball of some kind.’

‘I’ll get that arranged, sir. There will need to be security…’

Elroy waved away the suggestion. ‘Tell Aneka she can bring her guns. My normal security detail should be quite sufficient with her here.’

Truelove’s lips twitched. ‘Of course, sir.’

18.1.529 FSC.

‘I wasn’t expecting you to bring that,’ Elroy said as Aneka put her rifle case down beside the couch.

‘Elaine said you were foregoing a more extensive security detail because I was here,’ Aneka replied. ‘If I’m on protection detail, you get the full package.’ She patted the other case she had put down first, a squatter one in metal. ‘I brought Bessie as well as the two machine pistols.’

‘Bessie is her antimatter blaster,’ Ella commented as she sat down and crossed her legs. ‘Aneka is a one-woman army.’

‘Are you expecting to need them?’ Abby asked, eyes wide at the sheer quantity of armament.

‘No,’ Aneka stated. ‘I didn’t expect to need any of them to herd sheep either.’

Abby coughed. ‘Well let’s hope we don’t get attacked by ogres today.’

‘Ogres?’ Elroy asked, frowning. ‘Isn’t that some sort of mythical creature?’

‘Mutated Humans,’ Ella supplied.

‘Strong and kind of dumb,’ Aneka added, ‘with a predilection for kidnapping women. Anyway, I assume you’ve seen all the reports on the ship Abby brought with her? The wrecked one?’ She sat down beside Ella, leaning back wearily.

‘I have,’ Elroy said, sitting down in his preferred armchair. He tapped at a tablet perched on one of the arms and the huge wall screen opposite him lit up with a schematic of the wreckage. ‘It’s all a little moot if it turns out that the Herosians have started a war, but the evidence is fairly damning.’ His gaze moved to Abby. ‘What I really need to know is whether we can count on support from Old Earth if we need it?’

‘I haven’t heard a definitive answer,’ Abby replied. ‘I think the fact that they haven’t called me back is a good sign. The Guardians, uh, our military, think that helping the Jenlay would be good strategically. It’s a matter of deciding whether we can spare the ships, I think.’

Elroy bowed his head in acknowledgement. ‘Your own security is important.’

‘Yes,’ Aneka agreed, ‘but we know the Herosians will come after Old Earth because they already have. As far as we know, the Pinnacle is nothing but a potential threat.’

‘You were the one who said you didn’t want them making decisions based on your assessment,’ Abby pointed out. ‘I think that’s the advice they’re getting from the Guardians, but it’s a question of overcoming fear. An unknown fear versus a known one.’

‘It’s hard to compete against an unknown fear,’ Elroy commented bleakly.

‘In this case,’ Ella said, ‘it may work to our advantage. The Citizens are very rational people. If they can’t quantify it, they may well place a tangible risk as a higher priority.’

‘I wouldn’t say you’re wrong,’ Abby said. ‘Ella’s assessment of my bosses is quite accurate, in my opinion. Her training in psychology is more extensive than mine.’

Elroy smiled at her. ‘If you don’t mind me saying, you seem rather young for a diplomat, Abigail.’

‘I… suppose I am, but my teachers say I have a talent for it. They also say they don’t. They know what to do, and they can teach the technicalities of it, but they’re just not very…’

‘Social,’ Aneka supplied.

‘Uh… Yes, that works.’ She gave Aneka a slightly apologetic grin. ‘They’re getting better. You know half the crew of the Hand have taken up…’

Aneka thought she knew what the girl was going to say and she did not particularly want Elroy knowing she had introduced recreational sex to the Old Earth people. ‘I’m glad they’re taking up a hobby,’ she interrupted.

Elroy looked between them, shrugged, and went on. ‘Well, I have a woman from old Old Earth and one from modern Old Earth, and an expert of our understanding of Old Earth. I’m a student of history with a need to understand how the two Earths can relate to one another. I’m sure you can see where this is going.’

Aneka grinned at him. ‘We should get drinks in. This could take a while.’

~~~

They had had dinner brought in. Nothing too fancy: good, tasty, New Earth food which Abby seemed to quite enjoy. She had commented on the fact that the wine did not really taste like wine and suggested she bring a bottle or two down from her diplomatic supplies if she visited again. Elroy and Ella had looked at Aneka who had shrugged and said she had not really wanted to mention it before.

The talk had been largely undirected, but over the course of the afternoon almost the entire story of the Garnet Hyde’s trip to Old Earth had come out. Ella’s seduction of Abby had been left out. What Yrimtan had been, and the fact that she had been killed by Aneka had not.

‘I want to thank you, Aneka,’ Elroy said as they sat at the dinner table, drinking and chatting.

‘For what?’ Aneka asked, smiling.

‘The story of you and Yrimtan, or Manu Dei, or whatever she was calling herself, I get the feeling that there are very few people who know all of it.’

‘Not many. I don’t think you can really understand the people over there without knowing how they got the way they are. Still, I’d rather this didn’t get wider exposure.’

Elroy nodded. ‘Agreed. I don’t think we’ll gain…’

‘Urgent message received from the Admiralty,’ the house’s computer announced in a bland tone.

Elroy looked up at the ceiling, which was where the sound came from, but not really where the message was going to be seen. ‘It never sounds particularly urgent,’ he said absently.

‘I keep thinking the same thing,’ Aneka said. ‘I assume you’d better take that privately.’

‘Yes,’ Elroy said, unfolding himself from his chair, ‘I suppose I should.’

‘What do you think?’ Ella asked once he was out of the room.

‘I think it’s about Obati,’ Aneka replied. ‘I also think they wouldn’t have tagged it as urgent if it was just to report a transmitter failure.’

‘I don’t know,’ Abby said. ‘Your Navy seems a little excitable. Not that I’m expecting good news either.’

‘Several sites devoted to watching the activities of the Navy are reporting an increase in activity around Corax,’ Al stated. ‘CFM have just put up a newsflash that they are expecting an imminent statement on the Obati situation.’

Aneka sighed. ‘Al says there are reports on activity around Corax and there’s going to be an announcement about Obati soon.’

‘Corax?’ Abby asked.

‘One of the moons around Joval Seven,’ Ella told her. ‘Among other things, there’s a Navy facility there. It mostly handles frigates and gunships…’

‘Just the kind of ships you’d use to set up perimeter defences and patrols,’ Aneka said.

Elroy’s voice cut in from the speakers, interrupting their discussion. ‘Ladies? I think it’s best if you come through here and see this. I’ll have to tell Abigail anyway…’

‘He didn’t sound happy,’ Ella commented as they got up and followed the route he had taken to the lounge.

Elroy waited for them to sit down and then flicked a finger at the wall screen, which was currently showing nothing. ‘This arrived through the normal FTL relay system about half an hour ago. The Navy have confirmed the encryption and authentication codes. It’s genuine.’ He tapped his pad and the video started running.

The image looked degraded at first, but Aneka quickly realised that what she was seeing was a man’s face obscured by smoke. It looked as though he was standing, attached to some form of bracing structure by a harness, and there seemed to be some sort of image behind him.

‘It’s a Delta-class frigate,’ she said. ‘That’s the captain’s station.’

The man spoke, confirming her assessment. ‘This is… Captain Levant of the Delta Carpathia. All drives are down, reactor is offline. We’re running on backup power. Life support is… more or less functional, but we’re not sure how long it’ll last. There are four of us left. I’m transmitting our position along with this in case someone can help, but…’ He dissolved into a fit of coughing.

‘How many crew are on one of those ships?’ Abby asked.

‘Fifteen,’ Aneka replied flatly.

‘A large contingent of Herosian ships jumped into the system about fifteen hours ago. The Obati system. Uh, we detected high levels of thermal activity, atmospheric shockwaves. No radiation, they must’ve used kinetic impactors. Big ones. We were outnumbered. The Herosian ships on duty here joined their fleet. I warped out when they took out our main drives. Had to get this message out. Someone had to. Warp’s gone too now and we’re drifting. The Senate… The Senate’s gone. I never thought they’d really do it.’

The video stopped, leaving the room in silence.

‘How many people on Obati?’ Aneka asked after a few seconds.

‘Including the military personnel in orbit,’ Elroy replied, ‘around forty thousand.’

‘Right…’

‘I have a statement to prepare for the news channels,’ Elroy went on. ‘I plan to keep it simple. We have had nothing from the Herosians themselves. Frankly, I’m not sure D’Jarnis even knows what’s going on.’

‘I’ll send a message to Earth with the news,’ Abby said, her voice dull. It was one thing to expect the worst, another to have it happen.

‘Thank you, Abigail. I’m sorry our evening had to end in this manner.’

‘It was always likely that it would,’ Aneka said. ‘We all knew we were likely to hear this today. We were lucky we got this long before it arrived.’ She got to her feet. ‘We should get Abby to her shuttle.’

‘Indeed,’ Elroy agreed, standing up as well, ‘but could I take a moment of your time first, Aneka?’

Ella got up, holding out a hand to Abby. ‘We’ll go get ready to leave,’ she said, glancing at Aneka.

‘Yeah,’ Aneka replied. ‘I’ll be there shortly.’

When she turned around, Elroy was walking over to the window. He stopped in front of it, looking out at the pale blue glow from the pool.

‘I… need to ask you to do something, Aneka,’ the Senator said. ‘It’s something I never thought I’d ask of anyone, but I’m not sure I can ask it of anyone else.’

Aneka stepped up to stand beside him. She had a feeling she knew what his request was going to be, but she needed to hear him say it.

‘Marcus Dowler,’ Elroy went on. ‘He needs to be eliminated from the equation.’

‘You want me to kill him,’ Aneka stated.

‘I want you to kill him,’ Elroy agreed.

‘I’m not an assassin, Senator…’ Her gaze took in the lounger resting at the edge of the pool. Diana Ollander had used it more than once. ‘Senator Ollander was on Obati,’ she said.

‘Yes, she was.’

‘Jackson…’

‘I don’t want you thinking that this is for personal reasons,’ he said firmly. ‘We have never worked out how he communicates with his handlers. He will continue to pass information to them and that must end.’

Aneka was silent for a moment. ‘I’ll need to think about it. It’s not what I do, but… Someone once told me that some of us have to do things we don’t like so that everyone else doesn’t have to.’

‘Winter,’ Elroy said. ‘She used to say something like that.’

‘Yeah…’

‘Make no mistake, Aneka; I’d do this myself if I had the slightest possibility of succeeding. I can’t make this a personal matter… but it is.’

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Aneka said, and then she turned from the window, picked up her gun cases, and left.

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 19.1.529 FSC.

‘He asked you to do that?’ Winter sounded surprised. She was currently in her blonde, teenage avatar, though Aneka guessed they were all a little lost without their guiding parent-mind. They might all drift a little, as Justine had.

‘Yes, he did,’ Aneka said. They were talking in the street, just a woman chatting to a young friend. ‘If I do it, it has to be subtle. I can’t just shoot him. And that limits my options for getting to him.’

‘Well, give me a couple of days. It’ll let you think about it and I can arrange something… subtle.’ She grinned, rather maliciously. ‘I think you should do it, by the way. He needs to be eliminated, and Elroy will feel obligated. The latter might be more useful than the former.’

‘Huh,’ Aneka grunted. ‘You realise that this is exactly what I didn’t want to end up doing?’

‘I am aware of that fact, yes. If you decide to go ahead, I’ll prime Elaine with some information I’ve collected. We should be able to nail almost all of the FSA moles in one night. That will just leave the ones that I’m quite sure exist in the Navy.’

Aneka grimaced. ‘One problem at a time, please.’

Beryum System, 20.1.529 FSC.

Beryum was an odd sort of place to put a colony. A trinary system, the colony had actually been established on the lone moon of one of the gas giants circling around the distant, third star, an orange dwarf. The two primaries were almost invisible, collapsed long ago into white dwarves, but at a minimum separation of two hundred AUs, Beryum never felt much of an effect from them.

The moon, which everyone referred to as Beryum, was small for a garden world, and the atmosphere was low on oxygen. It was not the warmest place to live either and there was often snow on the ground. Life had developed there, happy in the marginal conditions, but the colonists had got used to working in breather masks and heated suits when they were outside the domed environments which formed the cities. They had come for the minerals, of which Beryum was abundantly supplied, but the system also provided a lot of Helium-3 to the near systems, and there was also a line in various herbs and spices which could not be found anywhere else. The local fauna was inedible, but not particularly dangerous. The slightly difficult living conditions, and the proximity to Herosian space, had kept the world’s population down, which meant those who went to live there had more wealth to share around. The Jenlay who lived on Beryum had a comfortable life.

The government facilities on the planet were both a source of pride and a bone of contention, and they had been for half of the four centuries the colony had existed. Beryum had a substantial naval presence, which had helped in the construction of its large, and prestigious, spaceport, but some felt that such a large base so close to the Herosians was a provocative mistake. Part of the base was an FSA facility, generally considered to be there to keep an eye on the border region. It had Herosian and Jenlay staff, but that just made things worse; the Jenlay of Beryum were not especially fond of the Herosians since the world’s ownership had been contested early in the life of the Federation. It was generally considered a clear manifestation of the Herosian urge to own everything since they hated the cold, and Beryum was far from being a warm place.

None of this concerned Mizzy Tuft. She was far more concerned about the screen she was glaring at and the maths problem it was presenting to her. Her AI tutor was attempting to educate her in the joys of basic arithmetic, and Mizzy just did not seem to have a numeric sort of brain. That fact had been noted by the education network and her class programme had been adjusted accordingly. Several higher-level mathematics modules had been dropped from her curriculum and replaced with social studies. Mizzy would be able to do basic maths, but whether she knew it or not, she was on her way to becoming an administrator, maybe even a politician or lawyer. The network was good at working out people’s vocations, but at six, Mizzy was still a little young to be planning that far ahead.

‘Mom,’ Mizzy wailed, ‘the computer hates me.’

Donna Tuft grinned, put down the tablet she was reading, and wandered over to the desk her daughter was working at. ‘Speak Federal, dear,’ Donna reminded Mizzy. ‘You need to practise or the people on New Earth will think you’re a shazi.’ They spoke a lot of Rimmic on Beryum; the colony had started out long enough ago and been isolated enough that it remained their primary tongue.

‘Sorry, Mom,’ Mizzy said, in Federal. ‘We’re going soon, right?’

‘Next month, but now you need to attend to your schoolwork.’

‘But…’ The little red-haired girl flicked a glance at the basic bit of algebra on the screen. ‘What’s New Earth like?’

‘First the sum.’

Mizzy pouted, but she frowned fiercely at the screen. Incentive had been provided: one sum, and then she could ask about the Jenlay capital. ‘If three times A equals six… So move the three across…’

‘And…?’

‘And… Under! A is six divided by three!’

‘And what does that make A?’

‘I hate division.’

‘But…?’

‘Two?’

‘Well…’

Mizzy looked at the computer and said, ‘A equals six divided by three, which means that A equals two.’ A large, green tick overlaid itself over the simple equation and Mizzy clapped her hands gleefully. ‘What’s New Earth like?’ she repeated, just in case her mother had forgotten their deal.

‘Well, it’s a lot warmer than Beryum, and you can breathe outside without a mask. Your father says there’s a beach beside the city we can go to. You can sunbathe.’

Mizzy’s green eyes widened in the way only young children can manage. ‘Outside, on a beach, without a heatsuit?!’

‘Yes, dear. And we should have some time to go outside the city as well. There’s a big forest near it…’

‘With trees?!’ Mizzy had seen plants, but nothing on Beryum grew much taller than her. The only time she had ever seen a tree was in class, on her monitor.

‘With trees as tall as a house.’

Mizzy mouthed, ‘Oh wow.’

Donna glanced at the console. ‘Now, you’ve got history there. You like history. I’m sure there’ll be something about New Earth in your lessons.’

‘Okay,’ Mizzy said brightly and turned to her screen.

Donna went back to her chair, picked up her tablet and flicked it over to the news channel. There had been some noise about gathering tensions with the Herosians and she wanted to keep an eye on it. If, for some reason, travel became restricted, her husband’s business trip might be delayed, and that would require some expectations management. News tended to be slow in coming on the border, so far away from the core regions. You got used to learning about things so long after they happened that they no longer mattered.

She frowned at the main page of the local CFM site where a breaking news banner was scrolling text. Indications of space combat… Reports of dropships… She tapped a video icon and the image expanded to fill the screen. It showed several spacecraft, little more than black blobs in the distance, but apparently moving toward the camera. But where was the camera…?

There was a noise in the distance, a sharp sound followed by a low rumble. It was followed by a second, closer, sound. Donna bolted to her feet. ‘Mizzy!’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

‘The Herosian embassy became “home” to around two hundred extra citizens today as the Administration announced that all expatriate Herosians on New Earth were to be placed under strict supervision.’ The presenter spoke the words with an almost happy air, but they left Aneka cold. ‘Given the option of house arrest or moving to the embassy, the majority have moved. Ambassador D’Jarnis has protested the move by the newly centralised Jenlay Administration, but his words have fallen upon deaf ears after the attack on the Senate.’

‘Most of the Herosians on New Earth wouldn’t know what to do with a gun if it bit them,’ Ella said, her pretty face sombre. ‘They’re here to run businesses, not fight. Most of them are here because they couldn’t stand it there! They’ve less reason to want a Herosian invasion than we have.’

‘World War Two,’ Aneka said. ‘The Americans gathered up a hundred thousand or so people of Japanese decent and piled them into “War Relocation Camps.” Some of them were actually Japanese, but the majority were American citizens. Eventually there was a study and it was decided it was all unjustified, based on prejudice and hysteria, but that was fifty or sixty years later. They did the same with Germans and Italians, but they’ve never apologised for that. The British did something similar with the Germans and Italians, though it was primarily to avoid them being killed by rioters, supposedly at least. People do some… strange things when they’re scared.’

‘Given what’s happened already, the Herosians might be safer in the embassy compound.’

‘True, but it’s hardly set up to house double its normal population. And I still think a lot of that was down to people trying to stir up trouble.’

Ella was silent for a second, then, ‘Do you think people are fighting somewhere?’

‘No idea. Maybe. Given they have to get ships from one system to another it might take longer before the first battles… And we wouldn’t find out about it for days anyway.’ She gave a mirthless laugh. ‘In my time the media had just started to get really immediate. I mean there were some people saying that traditional media would be overtaken by social media feeds, but we also had embedded reporters in fighting units, live reports from the front lines. There was this video taken in Baghdad of a cruise missile flying through the city, below the height of some of the buildings. Even in the Falklands War there were reporters on the Royal Navy ships. Now we’re back to reports filed days earlier. We’re sitting at home waiting for news from faraway places.’

‘Like Senator Elroy said, it’s a slow war.’

‘Yeah… I think it’s time to speed things up a little.’

High Yorkbridge, 21.1.529 FSC.

Aneka sat in the sun, eating a processed protein ‘hamburger’ and watching the short brunette beside her as she picked the pickle out of her own snack.

‘I hate these little green, slimy…’ Winter muttered. ‘I mean, are they actually supposed to be edible? They taste like gopi, and they feel like they were formed in a press out of bioplastic.’

Aneka shrugged. ‘I got used to them. Well, the version we had back then. These are actually nicer.’

‘It’s nice to know technology has improved crappy food.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘You’re impatient,’ Winter commented.

‘A little. I’d rather get this done before I change my mind.’

‘All right. That case has a small neural disrupter in it. It’s a field-effect weapon, causes a massive overload of the nervous system which should manifest as cardiac arrest. He’ll appear to have had a heart attack. Rare these days, but not unheard of, and the man is under a lot of stress. It’s short range. You’ll need to be in the room with him.’

‘Which presents a problem.’

‘Yes. He lives in the tower behind us, and that’s going to be the best place to do this. A suite on the hundred and tenth floor.’

Aneka did not look around; she had had a good view of the building as she walked up. It was a towering, white edifice, slim in the way only advanced materials could manage in such a tall building. There were broad balconies on several of the floors, though they tailed off at height. High Yorkbridge did not have a lot of housing in it, and what there was was expensive.

‘How does he afford a place like this anyway?’ Aneka asked.

‘Head of the FSA carries a sizeable salary,’ Winter replied. ‘However, in this case he was assigned it for security purposes. Mister Dowler has taken it a little far, however. He seals himself into his apartment at night. Won’t even let his bodyguards in unless he summons them.’

‘No way through the door then, and I assume he doesn’t use hookers?’

‘As far as I can determine, he’s celibate. He does have a very extensive collection of erotic videos, moderately excessive ones.’

‘Right… Air ducts?’

‘Alarmed. Sections can be sealed automatically, or by command.’

‘I’m almost happy about that, but how do I get in?’

‘The balcony. No one thinks it’s possible to get to it without detection so the locking mechanism on the windows is secure, but not that secure. Al should be able to hack it.’

‘Uh-huh. And how am I supposed to get to it if it’s supposed to be impossible?’

‘Ah, you’re going to like this…’

22.1.529 FSC.

Aneka strutted into the lobby of the tower wearing a long, black coat, a black choker, a pair of stacked high heels, and a long, black wig. There were guards; men in suits with suspicious bulges under their armpits who watched her walk toward the inner entrance, stepping out to block her way just as she stepped up to the Polyglass screen.

‘Excuse me, Miss,’ one of them said.

Aneka smiled at him. ‘Yes?’ Silently she spoke to Al. ‘Got the door yet?’

‘I’m working on it. Two seconds.’

‘You’re not a resident,’ the guard went on.

‘No, Mister Cutter, floor one-twenty-two, requested a companion for the evening. I’m Leticia, Confidential Companions.’ One of the nice things about not having a normal ident-chip, and having someone like Winter to provide backup, was that she could be a hooker for the evening. Maybe ‘nice’ was not the right term for that.

‘We’ll need to check under your coat, Miss.’ The second man was checking her pockets and finding nothing. As Winter had suggested, Mister Cutter employed the services of hired companions on a regular enough basis that they were not worried about that. Aneka had wondered why he needed to bother, but the explanation was, apparently, security. The companions he hired were security vetted prior to engagement.

‘Really? There’s nothing under there except me.’

‘It’s procedure.’

Shrugging, Aneka released her grip on the front of her coat and opened it up for them. They stared. She really did have nothing under it except herself.

‘Uh… that’s fine,’ the guard said.

Giving him a smile, Aneka closed her coat and pulled open the door. ‘Well done,’ she said to Al.

‘My pleasure, and may I say that your acting skills are coming along nicely.’

‘Acting like a naked prostitute just requires taking your clothes off.’

‘You still do it exceptionally well.’

‘Hush, I’ll tell Cassandra you’ve started lusting after my body.’

‘Cassandra does, why shouldn’t I?’

Aneka said nothing, and instead hit the call button for the lift. Inside she hit the button for floor 122 and waited.

‘I’ve invaded the lift control systems. We will appear to stop on floor one-two-two, but we will continue to the roof access level. The camera in here is now suffering intermittent failures. It will fail entirely in five seconds.’

‘Okay, activate the suit as soon as it does.’

Six seconds later she felt her chocker spreading out to cover her body in black, living metal armour. It was a creepy experience, especially when it formed over her eyes. There was always a slight instant of panic before her vision returned courtesy of the full-spectrum sensors in the suit’s skin.

The lift doors opened and she stepped out onto the topmost level of the building. According to the map Winter had provided, the stairs onto the roof were to her left, and then it would be a sharp about face to the eastern wall of the building, the side Dowler’s suite was on. And then there was the bit which, despite Winter’s statement to the contrary, Aneka was fairly sure she was not going to like.

She stopped just inside the door and slipped off her shoes, picking up the right one and popping up the panel in the thick sole. Inside was a palm-sized device, smooth and simple, with a single button on one side where your thumb could rest easily on it. She pocketed that and then hid the shoes, and her wig, behind some pipes before walking out onto the roof.

There was a brisk wind at eight hundred metres above the ground, but her suit kept it out. Buttoning her coat closed and cinching the belt tightly around her waist, she walked to the edge and looked down. She would be a black, falling object in the dark night. It was highly unlikely anyone would see her, but she did have to dodge three other balconies as she fell. Activating the gravity harness built into the coat, she stepped off into thin air.

It took her ten seconds to drop to the right level, Al calling off the distance as she went. The harness dug into her armpits as she halted her fall entirely and drifted sideways to Dowler’s window. ‘Start on the door,’ she said as she slipped over the railing and started taking off the coat. Using the suit’s adaptive camouflage was probably overkill, but she was taking no chances. Winter had found no evidence that Dowler had cameras in his suite, but if there were any, they were not going to see her.

‘Lock disabled,’ Al reported. ‘Camouflage enabled. You’re clear to proceed.’

Aneka pulled the window aside slowly, mindful of sound, and checked the room beyond for infrared signatures before moving into it. It was a bedroom, and there was no one in it. Dowler was apparently burning the midnight oil. Listening, she could hear sound from the next room, so she slipped to the door and opened it slowly, just enough that she could slip through. That was wider than she would have liked and she once again cursed nature and the Xinti for giving her large breasts.

‘Yes I’m concerned!’ Dowler said. He was sitting in a chair, facing more or less away from Aneka and his bedroom. She could see a phone in his hand, held to his ear. Whoever he was talking to was elsewhere in the system. ‘Elroy was looking daggers at me all through the meeting this afternoon. I’m quite sure he wants me dead…’

Aneka raised the disrupter, but Dowler was still talking and she paused. It would be better to wait until he was finished. Less chance of his apparently natural death being reversed by a rapid response.

‘I know he’s just a politician. I’m just a politician. How many people have I had killed?’ There was a pause and then, ‘I’m secure for the moment. The device you gave me worked against the telepaths, they got nothing. Truelove looked distinctly displeased. We need to get rid… She’s more trouble alive!’ His face tensed. Whoever he was talking to was not pleased. ‘No, I’m not questioning your decision. I simply feel that, now that everything is out in the open, there’s less need to be subtle.’

Screw waiting, if it was his handler he was talking to they were unlikely to report a problem. She raised the disruptor again and pressed the button. It made no sound, and for a second Aneka thought it might not be working. There was no visible effect, but after a second Dowler let out a shriek of pain. The phone flew from his hand, hitting a wall, as the man clutched at his chest, gasping and gulping at the air like a floundering fish. He rolled, slowly, forward and off the chair, falling to the plush carpet where he twitched once and then lay still, his eyes glazed.

Aneka lowered her weapon and slipped out of the room. She almost wished the wind would penetrate the metal skin she was wearing. Killing someone in a fair fight was different somehow. This kind of death made her feel dirty. But she still had to get out of the building; there was no time for worrying over her morals now.

Pulling her coat back on she said, ‘Make sure the door is locked, then we’ll go back up to the roof.’

‘Already done,’ Al informed her.

Nodding, she stepped onto the railing and let the harness haul her upward.

23.1.529 FSC.

There were Peacekeepers and FSA agents all over the lobby of the building as Aneka walked out. One of the agents moved to stop her, but he was intercepted by the guard Aneka had spoken to earlier.

‘She’s okay. She’s been… busy all night.’

Yeah, busy hiding on the top floor for the last three hours. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked, widening her eyes in surprise.

‘Uh, one of our residents had a heart attack,’ the guard replied. ‘His implant reported it immediately, of course, but he was too paranoid to let us in without his permission, and he was too busy dying to give it. Took them two hours to cut their way through his security.’

‘Oh that’s terrible. Who was he? Perhaps I know him… professionally.’

‘Doubt it. Never seen the guy with a woman. Or a man.’ The guard leaned forward and dropped his voice. ‘Between you and me, I think he was into robots or aliens, or he was just sick.’

Aneka giggled. ‘I know plenty of sick people. Maybe I’ll see you around. Night.’ Smiling, she strutted out past the assembled ranks of officials praying hard that none of them was going to recognise her. Most of them relied on their implants to remember people, and right now she was Leticia and wearing a wig, but you never knew.

She started breathing again when she was on the subway heading home.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

Ella waited for twenty minutes before joining Aneka in the shower. She found her just leaning into the water, arms braced against the wall, head bowed. Ella slipped in between Aneka and the wall, reaching out and lifting the blonde woman’s chin.

Aneka gave her a bleak smile. ‘I’m fine. I will be fine.’

Ella nodded. ‘When I had to shoot that Herosian in the back, on Odanari, you were there for me while I fretted over it. I know you’re like this super killing machine, but you’re not an assassin. I understand it’s not the same. So, you were there for me, I’m here for you.’

Nodding, Aneka stepped forward, pressing Ella up against the wall and kissing her hard. There was an instant of surprised stiffness, then enthusiastic response, and then the gasping for breath as Aneka finally let her go.

‘I, uh, I need to breathe, remember?’ Ella said, her voice husky.

‘I know. I’m going to be a little rough tonight. In the morning I’ll be very tender.’ Reaching down, she took Ella’s wrists in her hands and pulled them up over her head, enhanced strength allowing her to keep them rising until Ella was on the tips of her toes, looking at Aneka with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation.

‘Anything you want,’ Ella whispered.

~~~

CFM News was on the wall screen. Aneka was basically watching it for confirmation, and she got it as the first item on the evening news. Hardly surprising: the war was theoretically exciting, but practically speaking, nothing was happening. This was news.

‘FSA Head Marcus Dowler died last night at his home in High Yorkbridge. Peacekeepers and FSA agents were brought in immediately to investigate, but this morning it was announced that his death was due to heart failure. An FSA spokesman stated that Dowler was under considerable stress and it is believed that an undiagnosed valve defect may have resulted in cardiac arrest.’

‘Undiagnosed valve defect, huh?’ Ella said.

‘A doctor I met once said that ultimately, everyone dies of heart failure. Your heart stops, you’re dead.’

‘Retired Admiral Jason Pierce has been appointed to lead the FSA,’ the presenter went on. ‘Administration statements have indicated that, in this time of war, it was felt that a military background would be helpful in deploying FSA resources.’

‘That doesn’t sound so good,’ Aneka commented, ‘but it’s also very fast. Elroy was obviously ready with a replacement.’

‘Yes, but why didn’t he just promote Elaine?’ Ella protested.

Aneka shrugged. ‘Too young?’

‘The FSA stays in the news with the arrest of several high-ranking agents for “behaviour suspected of being counter to the best interests of the Jenlay people.” Exactly what this means and who they are remain a mystery, but experts believe that there has been a fight to clear the Agency of personnel under the influence of the Herosians for several months.’

The presenter shifted slightly, turning to a different camera to break the storyline.

‘Mute,’ Aneka said before the woman on the screen could say another word.

‘There might have been something else important on,’ Ella said, frowning.

‘I highly doubt it and there’s something I’d rather do instead.’

‘There is?’

‘Uh-huh. Go to the bedroom. Come back naked, with the neurostim and some setae strip.’

Ella gave a little whimper and jumped to her feet. ‘I’ll be right back.’

Grand Hall, Administration Building, High Yorkbridge, 25.1.529 FSC.

The great and the good of New Earth society, or what passed for them, were gathered in the central Administration facility in High Yorkbridge primarily for the purpose of being seen in the Grand Hall with the people they thought they should be seen with.

The actual reason for the gathering was diplomatic: Abby and Tasker were down from the Hand of God to do some tie cementing. Those had been Abby’s words for it; Aneka had smirked.

Elroy and the entire crew of the Garnet Hyde were there, the latter as the ‘re-discoverers of Old Earth.’ Delta was looking distinctly uncomfortable in a new gown which, despite being ankle length, managed to show off almost her entire body. Aneka had recycled the silver gown she had worn at her first reception ball, despite Ella’s protestations. Aneka had said there was no time to buy something, which was a lie, but one she was willing to live with.

Aneka was spending most of the evening avoiding reporters, which was becoming increasingly difficult. It was only a matter of time before she was cornered by someone from CFM. They were the most respected media organisation in the Federation, they always followed the rules, but they were tenacious.

‘Miss Jansen, it must be quite exciting to have people from your old home world visiting your new one?’ The reporter was named David Indian; Aneka had never met him before.

‘I’m pleased to see Ambassador Linden here,’ Aneka replied. ‘I only met Captain Tasker when the Hand of God arrived, but I like her.’ Exciting was not the word Aneka would have chosen under the circumstances, so she avoided it.

‘Yes, “Hand of God” seems an odd name for a vessel.’

Also an odd twist to the questions. ‘It’s a historic name. I understand they’re building a “Stellar” class as well. The first of those will be the Helios, named for an old sun god. The Hand is a powerful ship, it’s a good name.’

‘It almost seems like the people of Old Earth were preparing for a war before we were,’ Indian said.

‘In a way, but not with the Herosians. It’s a big galaxy, Mister Indian. There are people out there who have never heard of the Federation, or even the Jenlay. We’re quite sure there are worlds out beyond Old Earth which survived the Xinti War. Some of them aren’t friendly.’

Indian nodded slowly. ‘You’ve seen war before, Miss Jansen. What do you think we can expect from this one?’

Aneka looked at him. She wanted to say, ‘death and destruction, what do you expect?’ Instead she said, ‘This isn’t the kind of war I’m used to. There will be battles like the ones I’ve seen, I’m sure, but in many ways this will be like the wars on Earth centuries before my time. It would take weeks or months to move an army to where the battle was going to happen then. Now we’re back to weeks of travel to get to a contested world. I don’t have that kind of experience.’

Indian nodded again, his face going very serious, and a little vicious. ‘Do you think the Herosians are going to finish what the Xinti started?’

‘Hardly. The Xinti wanted to destroy the Herosians. The Humans and Torem were foolish enough to believe the Xinti were after everyone. If Humanity had stayed out of it, we wouldn’t be having this war.’ She smiled at him. ‘I think that’s all I have to say. Enjoy the party.’

She spotted Elroy heading toward her as she walked away and shifted her angle to meet him.

‘I was on my way to rescue you, but I see it wasn’t needed,’ the Senator said, smiling. ‘That man has been trying to get something provocative out of someone all evening.’

Aneka shrugged. ‘He might have something. Depends how you look at it.’

Elroy looked at her for a second and then returned the shrug. Taking her arm, he gently guided her across the floor. ‘I’m not sure how you did it, but I suspect I owe you for the sudden and untimely demise of a certain burrowing mammal.’

‘He died of heart failure, according to the news.’

‘Yes, I’ve read the coroner’s report. Heart failure is exactly what it was put down to. Of course, coroners usually put that when they don’t actually know what the cause of death is…’

‘He died, end of problem. Let’s just leave it at that. Can this Admiral you’ve put in his place be trusted?’

Elroy’s lips twitched. ‘He can be trusted to let Elaine Truelove handle the running of the Agency while he hosts press conferences. Pierce is that most rare of modern military men: someone who knows their limitations. He will provide better liaison with the Navy than anyone else we could have put there, but he knows that he knows less than a useful amount about intelligence gathering and counterintelligence.’

‘That all sounds almost too good to be true.’

‘Hopefully I’ve judged it well. Only time will tell. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the dancing is due to start shortly and I must peel young Abigail’s collection of admirers off her so that I can collect my promised dance.’

‘I’d better find Ella then. She’ll be miffed if she doesn’t get me first.’

~~~

‘You don’t have a gun on you, do you Aneka?’ Abby asked as she slumped onto a seat beside her and Ella.

‘Technically, yes, but it’s in my right palm. You can’t borrow it. Why?’

‘I need a defence against the stream of Jenlay who want to wear my feet to bloody stumps.’

‘Ah.’

‘Aneka will glare at them if they come too close,’ Ella said. ‘That generally works.’

‘I’m staying here then,’ Abby stated flatly. Then she leaned closer and lowered her voice. ‘Besides, I wanted to talk to you and I haven’t had a chance. Prime City dispatched a fleet of ships. Or should have by now. I’ll get confirmation tomorrow.’

‘How many?’ Aneka asked.

‘I’m not sure. I’ll know tomorrow. The Helios is one of them, I know that much. They’re being sent in to defend New Earth, that’s all. But it should free up some of your ships to do other things.’

‘It’ll even the odds a little,’ Aneka agreed. ‘Elroy knows?’

‘Yes, and Elaine Truelove. No one else in the Administration and only the top brass in the Admiralty. They’re keeping it quiet until a couple of days before warp exit.’

‘Probably wise. I might have held off telling the Admiralty. We don’t know how leaky they are. How far away is Herosia?’

‘Uh… about four hundred and odd parsecs,’ Ella replied.

‘Four hundred and forty-six,’ Al supplied.

Aneka nodded. ‘So the Old Earth fleet should get here before anything they can send, unless they’re already on their way, which I doubt.’

‘This is good though,’ Ella said, ‘isn’t it? I mean, this will really help?’

‘It’ll help,’ Aneka replied. ‘I’d be happier if we knew more about the size of the Herosian fleet and their battle plans, but it’ll help.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 5.2.529 FSC.

‘Confirmation today that the colonies of Lonar and Beryum are un-contactable via FTL relay.’ Aneka, her expression flat, watched the wall screen where the presenter was laying out the latest bad news. ‘News of possible Herosian attacks on the two colonies began to filter through yesterday, but the Administration has confirmed that local attempts to connect to the systems have been failing for some time. A spokesperson for the Navy has indicated that Herosian ships likely arrived in the two systems in a coordinated attack on the twentieth of last month. As yet there is no word of anyone escaping the colonies. Both systems are in the Herosian border region.’

‘Al,’ Aneka said silently, ‘get me a galaxy map with those systems and New Earth on it. Put it on one of the walls.’

‘Lonar,’ the presenter went on, ‘a mining colony, has a population of sixty-five million. Beryum, originally created just for mining, is famous for the unusual spices produced by local flora and is a major supplier of Helium-Three in the area. At last count it had twenty-five million inhabitants.’

The side wall between the two bedroom doors flicked over to show a large expanse of black with a number of pinpoints of light in it. Three of the lights had flashing rings around them. Aneka got to her feet and, ignoring the news channel, walked over to look at the display.

Ella joined her, wrapping an arm around her partner’s waist. ‘I don’t really know much about Lonar. You’ve used spices from Beryum in your recipes. It’s supposed to be a nice place. Bit cold and the atmospheric oxygen level is low, but pretty.’

‘Ninety million people,’ Aneka said. ‘The Herosians aren’t noted for keeping native populations alive when they take a world.’

‘They’ve probably taken them for the resources. At least initially they’ll need people to work the mines.’

‘Slavery or death. Tough choice.’

Beryum.

Mizzy lay in the darkness, curled into as tight a ball as she could manage. The children had been given blankets, and padded mats to keep them off the ground, but it was not enough to insulate her from the rock under the mat or the cold air in the cave they had been ushered into. The mines were oxygenated to make working easier, but heating them properly had proven a difficult task. The temperature was barely tolerable, better than on the surface, but cold. Too cold for sleep to claim her easily.

She was still not really sure what had happened. There had been a lot of running and shouting, and very loud bangs. Her mother had been scared. Really scared. There had been men in heavy, armoured suits, and they had been shooting at people, and they had funny legs and looked wrong. Some of the older children had said they were Herosians.

And when the bangs and shooting stopped she had been taken away from her mother. She had screamed and cried, but the big man in the armour had growled at her and kept on dragging. It had almost been nice when she had been thrown into the cavern and the man had gone away. But she had been in this cold, hard place for days now and she just wanted her mother.

The older children had said that they were being held there so that their parents would keep working the mines. They had said that the Herosians had started a war, and that was why Beryum had been attacked. Mizzy had her own theory.

‘If you’ll just bring my Mommy back,’ she whispered to the Universe, her breath steaming in the cold air, ‘I promise I’ll never complain about my lessons again. Even the maths. I promise. Please…’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 7.2.529 FSC.

Aneka was looking at the star display again. A fourth light had a ring around it.

‘Marchant,’ she said, ‘know anything about it?’

‘Just what was on the news. Mining again. They’re going after the resource-rich worlds on the border. I think Beryum and Marchant were disputed during the early years of the Federation. They already had Jenlay colonies, but the Herosians said they should be theirs.’

Aneka nodded. Marchant had a population of thirty-two million, or had had. There had been some transmissions from the system before the Herosians cut them off. A fast attack, heavy bombardment of non-strategic structures, use of high technology. The world had been assaulted on the same day as Lonar and Beryum, but it was further away and it had taken longer for the news to get through.

‘What’s this one?’ Aneka asked, pointing toward a dot on the display. The word ‘Dokar’ appeared beside it.

‘Dokar’s the largest naval base in the border region,’ Ella supplied. ‘On our side anyway.’

‘They’ll want that out of the way next… How big are we talking?’

‘Very, but it’s not like I have the Navy’s deployment plans. They run joint exercises with the Herosians out of there every five years or so. It’s the main command station for the entire region.’

‘So… Beryum. It’s not just a resources thing, they want it as a staging post for Dokar.’

‘They could have attacked already…’

‘No. I doubt it anyway. Attack, then consolidate your position. They’ll probably want to concentrate forces as well. If Dokar is as fortified as you say they’ll probably want to bring in ships from Lonar and Marchant, then move together. Trying to coordinate a multi-pronged attack over these distances is just asking for failure, and it probably wouldn’t get you any real advantage. They’ll wait.’

‘That seems to be the word for this war,’ Ella commented. ‘Everything is “wait.”’

‘Yeah… I hate waiting, but it’s all we can do.’

Interlude

G268, 10.3.529 FSC.

The designation on the Federation’s star charts was G268, which indicated that it had a habitable world, but no one had ever established a colony on it. There were a lot of worlds out there which could support Jenlay quite happily, and this one was well outside the Rim.

Winter dropped her ship out of warp and began scanning immediately. The invitation she had received had carried enough information to make her extremely curious, but not enough to tell her exactly what she was looking for. More from habit than need, she began assembling a system schematic on the holographic display in her operations centre as the data came in.

Eleven worlds, four of them gas giants. Two of those, the closest and furthest from the star, had beautiful ring systems and she devoted a microsecond to appreciating them before moving on.

A G8 main-sequence star provided quite adequate warmth to the fifth planet. It was roughly Earth-sized, a little bigger, a little heavier, a little lighter on the gravity, a little thicker in the atmosphere. It had a small moon to which it was tide-locked. She estimated a day of around one hundred and fifty-five hours.

Detecting nothing in the outer system, Winter poured power into her ship’s sublight drive, pushing on toward the inner planets. She suspected that the fifth one was going to be her target, but she was a thorough AI and wanted to be sure of her facts before committing.

Closer still she could analyse the atmospheres of the inner planets. The outermost of them was an Earth-sized world, but a frozen ball of rock with an atmosphere of carbon-dioxide and nitrogen, and no water, even in the form of ice. Most of the rest were either too small or too close to the star to have an atmosphere worthy of the term, but the fifth world had an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with no major contaminants. There was more sulphur than she might have expected and further examination indicated regions of heavy volcanic activity. Indications of young, jagged mountain ranges suggested a reasonable amount of tectonic movement. She was busy analysing the features to indicate likely areas of stability to narrow her search when her sensors showed two objects in orbit.

They were big, metallic, and clearly artificial, sitting at the two Lagrange points preceding and following the moon. The closest to her was built along the lines of a spaceport and communications facility. She could see the huge arrays used for tachyon beam interception, and structures which looked like hangar bay doors. The other… was simply not supposed to be there.

The sub-element of her mind which had been analysing the world’s surface had identified the most stable region of the crust and begun to detect signs of buildings when she heard the voice.

‘Sleep Brings Renewal to All Things,’ it said, ‘welcome to Shadataga.’

Part Five: What Once Was Lost

BC-101 Hand of God, 8.6.529 FSC.

The huge display screen at the front of the Hand of God’s bridge was full of ships. The Garnet Hyde’s crew had been invited up to join the Hand’s crew as they met the incoming Old Earth fleet and it was quite a sight.

‘That,’ Drake said emphatically, ‘is a big ship.’

He was right; the Helios was vast. Not as big as the Mordra Kai battleships the Xinti had built, but still far bigger than the largest Federation ships. It was more or less a cylinder of metal, the upper side of the bow sloping back from the gun port for the spinal weapons system. Three huge turrets were mounted on the slope, another, even bigger turret was mounted on her back, and the hull was dotted with smaller weapons. She was, as Tasker had said, a beast of a ship.

‘She’s primarily focussed on defence,’ Tasker said. ‘Offensive defence, but she was built to fight off attackers rather than perform assault operations.’

‘She looks like she could take on a fleet,’ Ella said.

‘She might not be that good. She’s got support though.’

Aneka gave a nod; Al was flicking through the visuals, cataloguing the different ships and listing them for her. There were three more cruisers like the Hand, five ships which looked like destroyers, heavily armed and fast, and twenty frigates. There was also something else which Al had no classification for.

‘What’s that dumpy looking ship?’ Aneka asked. ‘The heavy one with the light armament?’

‘Oh! They did send her,’ Tasker responded. ‘That’s the Argus. She’s a logistic support vessel. Carries supplies for the other ships, and she’s got a command and control centre, extended sensors, all you need to coordinate a fleet.’

‘Well, all that should give the Herosians a scare when they see it,’ Ella said.

‘Yeah,’ Aneka said. She glanced at Drake and Bash, and saw that they were frowning too. ‘I’d imagine their strategy will change.’

‘Ours too,’ Drake replied. ‘With this force backing up the home front, I expect someone will decide they can be bolder.’

Abby turned toward them, her expression momentarily distracted until she focussed on them; Aneka recognised the look of someone having internal communications. ‘We’re going to have a reception for the ship captains, some of your Representatives, and your Admirals, tomorrow night aboard the Helios,’ the brunette said. ‘We’d like you guys to be there?’ She was looking rather specifically at Aneka.

‘Captains want to meet me?’ Aneka asked, sighing.

‘Uh… Well it’ll help with morale…’

Aneka looked around. ‘Anyone unavailable?’

‘Do I have to wear a gown again?’ Delta asked.

‘A dress, I think, maybe not a gown.’

The Amazon-like redhead pursed her lips thoughtfully. ‘I guess…’

‘We’d be happy to come,’ Gillian said.

B-101 Helios, 9.6.529 FSC.

The Helios was definitely a working vessel, you could tell from the drab colour scheme and the holes in the mess room’s deck where the tables and benches had been unbolted to make some space for the reception.

Drake had been quite impressed, which generally meant it was being run well, at least on first inspection. The crew of the Hyde had been given a tour of the ship’s more interesting regions, something which the politicians and naval officers were not getting. The ‘interesting areas’ had included as many spaces occupied by crew as possible, and Aneka had felt eyes on her every step of the way. She was not best pleased about it, but if the ex-elite guard of Yrimtan were bolstered by seeing someone who looked like her then she was going to bite her tongue and live with it.

Anyway, it was preferable to being stuck in a room, even a large room, with various Administration people and high-ranking Navy officers who were all worrying that no other systems had been attacked yet. There was a peculiar mixture of worry, relief, and anticipation in the room, and not too much mixing. Language was not much of an issue; the Old Earth officers were running translation software on their implants which did not have to bridge much of a gap, but the New Earth people, aside from Elroy and the Hyde’s crew, were feeling outnumbered and uncomfortable.

That did not really matter, of course, because the point of the exercise was for Tasker and Peter Donnor, the Helios’ Captain, to usher Aneka from one Old Earth officer to another. It was mildly embarrassing. The crew of the Helios had been silent onlookers; the fleet’s officers, face to face with her, were acting like they were meeting a film star, or possibly a goddess.

‘Manu Dei really did a number on you people,’ Aneka muttered as they moved from one group to the next.

‘Occasionally,’ Donnor said, ‘if she heard about someone who was particularly skilled at combat, she would spar with them, give them pointers. When she did that it was a major event. Everyone who could manage it would attend to hear what she had to say.’

Aneka nodded. ‘She was good.’

‘Even being given direct orders by her was considered an honour,’ Tasker added.

‘If it helps any,’ Donnor said, ‘after the few minutes I’ve spent with you, you’re nothing like her.’

‘Thank you,’ Aneka replied, ‘though I do wonder how stable I’d be after a thousand years without sex.’

‘Sex? Never really seen the attraction.’

Tasker smirked. They were almost to another group of eagerly waiting ship captains. ‘I’ll have to have a chat with you later, Peter. In private.’

Aneka rolled her eyes and then put on a bright smile as she reached out for the next hand which had to be shaken.

~~~

‘You know half of them are never going to wash their right hands again, right?’

Aneka narrowed her eyes at her partner. ‘Comments like that will get you sent to bed, without any of the fringe benefits.’

Ella giggled, took a sip from her glass of real, Old Earth, grape-flavoured wine, and then frowned. ‘I overheard something I think you should hear as well.’ She was offering a network connection and Aneka accepted it, Al patching the sensory data through in a window rather than playing it back as though Aneka was in the scene. ‘Ignore the boring lofangpee I’m talking to, listen to the voices on my right,’ Ella added through the link.

‘Al, filter it, would you?’

They were both men and, as Ella had glanced in their direction, Aneka could tell they were Navy. One of them, a man with an impressive handlebar moustache, was saying, ‘The order went out a couple of days ago, as soon as we heard the reinforcements were coming. They go tomorrow.’

‘Is it really a good idea?’ the other replied. ‘Isn’t it going to leave Dokar open?’

‘Norton’s out there. You know him, he’ll not risk his own life by sending out too many ships.’

‘Right… So we send a force to Beryum and they get shot to gopi, and that gets us what exactly?’

‘We can’t just sit around doing nothing! Besides, we might win.’

‘Sure. We send ships they know all about up against ships we know nothing about, in an entrenched position. Did you never read Gobari?’

‘Well…’

‘You’re going to make full Admiral easy. You’re an idiot.’

‘And then the younger one stalked off,’ Ella said as the recording ended.

‘I’m amazed that guy’s made so far up the ranks,’ Aneka commented. ‘He seems to have a clue, and a mouth.’

‘Drake was right though, they’ve got bolder.’

‘Yeah. Not a good thing necessarily.’

‘Huh. I’ve got no idea what “Gobari” is and I can see that.’

Tristar Township, 11.6.529 FSC.

‘FSA Director Admiral Jason Pierce called for calm today at a press conference with Senator Jackson Elroy. Continued reports of Herosian ships in systems throughout the border region and deeper into Jenlay space have resulted in panicked exodus from a few systems.’

The news reporter droned on from Gillian’s wall screen, watched largely by Bashford and Aneka. Gillian and Ella had both decided that watching history unfold was becoming a lot less exciting than studying it in retrospect.

‘Admiral Pierce stated that all reports were taken seriously and analysed by a joint team of Navy and FSA analysts. To date, none of the sightings has carried sufficient validity to warrant further investigation.’

‘No one’s going to see their scout ships,’ Bashford commented, ‘even if they are sending them out.’

‘And I’m happy no one’s figured that one out,’ Aneka replied. ‘Can you imagine the panic if they think invisible spy ships are scouting out targets?’

‘You have a point.’

‘I’m just waiting for the other rumours to start.’

Bashford turned to her, frowning. ‘Other rumours?’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 12.6.529 FSC.

‘You know,’ Bashford said from the wall screen, ‘if I didn’t know better I’d think you were running this entire business.’

‘You saw the news then?’ Aneka asked, already knowing the answer.

‘Two businesses attacked because they used to work with Herosian shipping agents, and the Peacekeepers are saying that there has been a rise in accusations that people’s neighbours are spies. Do you have a playbook for this stuff?’

‘I studied early twentieth-century history in school, and obviously it was a personal interest. If you’re going to fight in a war it’s a good idea to know about the past ones.’

‘It’s a shame some of our officers don’t seem to think the same way,’ Gillian put in.

14.6.529 FSC.

The camera crew waiting outside their apartment block was unexpected. Aneka did not recognise the reporter, or the station logo, but the small team of three seemed determined to talk to her and Aneka waived Ella back inside before frowning at the man in the grey suit who seemed to be the correspondent.

‘Watkis Mallroy,’ the man introduced himself, ‘of Front Line News.’

‘They were recently incorporated,’ Al supplied. ‘They appear to be someone’s idea of a way to make money by exclusively covering material related to the war.’

‘Oh,’ Aneka replied, ‘swell.’ Aloud she said, ‘Mister Mallroy, what can I do for you?’

Mallroy glanced at his cameraman, got a nod, and turned back to Aneka, becoming all business. Aneka stopped her eyes narrowing; the little bastard was up to something.

‘Miss Jansen, you’ve been accused of aiding the Herosians following your saving of the Herosian Ambassador’s life…’

‘Accused by whom?’ Aneka interrupted. ‘First I’ve heard of it.’

Mallroy’s expression faltered for a fraction of a second. Indecision, surprise; he had not expected that response, and he had not expected her to remain calm about it anyway.

‘I have a reliable source who…’

Aneka smiled. ‘You got a tip, you don’t know who from, that the FSA was investigating me. The FSA has investigated me at the molecular level, Mister Mallroy, long before this started. The idea that I’d be working for the Herosians is so funny I can’t find it in me to laugh, but that’s really not the point…’ She looked directly into the camera before going on. ‘The point you can quote me on, and please do, is that this kind of thing is exactly what the Herosians want. People are sitting in their homes thinking, “I always said Mister Smith next door was weird, and he keeps playing his music too loud, he must be a Herosian spy.” So they report him to the Peacekeepers and people who should be finding real spies have to go look. It wastes time and resources, and it breeds paranoia. You’re all intelligent people, stop fucking about! Now get out of my face before I have you arrested for false accusation.’

~~~

‘We tracked his “anonymous source” down to a rather sloppy ex-Humanity First member,’ Truelove explained over the wall screen. ‘He’s under arrest. He was screaming that you murdered Charles Hunter and had to pay when they dragged him off.’

‘Not actually a Herosian agent then,’ Ella said.

‘We’ve had to investigate every claim,’ Truelove replied, ‘and every claimant. It’s fucking irritating. So far we’ve had nothing come of any of it.’

‘Of course not,’ Aneka replied. ‘Like I said to Mallroy, this isn’t about anything the Herosians have to do, this is about the Jenlay sabotaging themselves.’

‘Yes well, Front Line weren’t going to use the interview, but we confiscated the recording and, oddly, it leaked. Elroy said to say that’s another one he owes you, though I’m not sure what the first one was. He wouldn’t be allowed to go on record saying the Jenlay were acting like a bunch of shazi.’

‘Not a politically astute move, no. I don’t think me growling at a camera is going to help that…’

‘There’s been a five per cent drop in false accusations since this morning,’ Truelove interrupted. ‘Not statistically valid, I’ll grant you, but even that will take some of the pressure off and the video hasn’t gone viral… yet.’

Aneka thought about the Winters scattered around the city, all specialists in information management. ‘I’m pretty sure it will,’ she said.

17.6.529 FSC.

‘Torem Ambassador Adjaxis was unavailable for comment today as the Jenlay delegation in Torem space announced the results of their meeting with the Torem Administration.’ The presenter on CFM was trying to keep her smiling demeanour going, but having increasingly more trouble. ‘The Torem are refusing to become involved in any conflict with the Herosians, citing the species survival clause in the Mutual Protection Agreement as their reason for backing out.’

‘This is going to come back to bite them,’ Aneka commented.

‘Well, it could take years before the Herosians finish with us, right?’ Ella replied. ‘That gives the Torem time to either leave or build their defences.’

‘It’s a viable strategy, sure, but I think they’ll find themselves suffering before then.’

‘I’m not sure how. I mean, if they’re refusing to help we can’t force them to change their mind. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.’

‘Someone will think of something to do, even if it isn’t useful.’

20.6.529 FSC.

‘Well…’ Ella said, staring at the muted screen. ‘Well, you called it.’

‘Somehow my sudden status as prophet gives me no comfort.’

CFM had just played an Administration announcement that all Torem living in Jenlay controlled space were to be restricted to their homes or enclaves. The Torem residents on New Earth were being moved to the enclave on Corax. Businesses were being closed down. All Herosians and Torem who needed to travel had to clear it with the Administration, a process expected to take several days.

‘I hope Tosimna’s okay,’ Ella went on. ‘I don’t even know if she’s still on Corax.’

‘Al?’ Aneka asked silently.

‘Tosimna returned to the Floating University late last year,’ Al replied.

‘She went home last year,’ Aneka said aloud. ‘She’s safe.’

‘Good,’ Ella replied, and then she was silent for a while. ‘It’s all going wrong, isn’t it?’ she finally said.

‘Yes. And I think it’s going to take something pretty amazing to fix it.’

‘Yeah… Well, we could always move to Old Earth.’

‘Huh. Maybe just a summer home there. I prefer the winters here.’

‘Uh, we don’t really have seasons…’

‘Precisely my point.’

16.7.529 FSC.

‘Secure, private message, marked as urgent, has been received for Aneka Jansen,’ the apartment’s computer announced. Aneka had tried tinkering with the settings, but the rather happy tone of the declaration still was not working to impel her to action.

‘Al, could you get that?’

‘I can… It is a message from Winter. Xinti encryption protocol… One of several created on Negral after the Xinti ended themselves.’

‘Winter normally uses her own encryption algorithms.’

‘Yes, she does. Shall I display it? It’s text only.’

‘Show me.’

A window appeared in her vision field and the message scrolled through it as she read.

Aneka, I hope this finds you well. Stupid thing to say, you are always optimal. I have an urgent request, and one which may prove difficult given the current state of things in Jenlay space. Yes, I am monitoring events. This message has attached coordinates. I need you to get there as soon as you can. We may have a way of stopping this war while it’s still not too bad, but it will require you to pull it off. I suggest bringing the Garnet Hyde and its crew, and Abraham Wallace and Cassandra. If possible, see if you can persuade Abigail Linden to come. Tell them all that it will be well worth their while. I know that’s cryptic, but in this case I’m working under orders. Winter.

‘Who gives orders to Winter?’ Aneka mused.

‘I suspect we will discover the answer to that if we do as she suggests.’

‘Right… So she wants me to get the Hyde, its crew plus extras including the Old Earth ambassador, and spirit them out of the system without anyone noticing. Not difficult at all.’

‘Given your talents, I’m sure you can come up with something.’

‘Huh, right.’ Aloud she called out, ‘Ella? We have a problem. Get your butt out of bed!’

Tristar Township.

Aneka stood in front of the wall screen in Gillian’s lounge with everyone on Winter’s list except Abby, plus Truelove and Justine arranged around her. It was starting to get a little cramped, and Gillian had a large lounge. They were looking at her as though she had gone funny, except for Ella and Justine.

‘I know this sounds crazy…’ she said.

‘I’m still processing the idea that Winter is an AI,’ Wallace responded. ‘When that has gone through, I’m sure I’ll be able to make an assessment of your mental state.’

‘Your mind works quite fast,’ Cassandra said, ‘for an organic. You’ll get there quickly enough. I am quite sure that Aneka is sane, my concern is regarding the accomplishment of this operation.’

Drake nodded. ‘If Winter says it’s important, then we go, but it’s not going to be easy. The Navy is restricting non-essential travel. We don’t have a reason to leave the system in the Hyde, and that’s without having Abby aboard.’

‘They’ve changed the regulations on flight plans,’ Shannon explained. ‘We would need to put in a request and wait, and have a reason to go. There would have to be a full crew manifest, and we’ve no reason for having Doctor Wallace aboard. I don’t see how we can do it.’

‘That’s why I got everyone here,’ Aneka said. ‘I figured that, between us, we might be able to figure something out.’

Bashford was looking thoughtful and Gillian picked up on it. ‘Bash, you’ve got the look you get when you’re plotting. It’s the same one you got when you sprang that surprise…’

‘I do have an idea,’ Bash said, a little too quickly. Aneka’s infrared overlay detected the increased blood flow in his cheeks, but there was no time to discover whatever embarrassing secret he was concealing. ‘That C-and-C ship they’ve built, the Argus, it’s brand new, right?’

Aneka nodded. ‘Deployed right out of the shipyard.’

‘So they haven’t fully tested it.’

‘I doubt it.’

‘So what if they wanted to run an operational test of the signal jamming systems, and Abraham agreed to assist in the spectrum coverage analysis? Of course, they would need a ship with a full scientific sensor array to do that analysis…’

‘You see?’ Gillian said. ‘He’s not just a gorgeous piece of man meat. There’s a brain in there too.’

Bashford went redder. ‘Man meat?’ he muttered.

‘That means I need the Old Earth fleet on the team,’ Aneka said. ‘I guess I’d better hop a shuttle. Elaine, can you work out how we would get authorisation to do a test like that? Bash, you are a gorgeous hunk of man meat, and don’t you forget it.’

BC-101 Hand of God.

It was getting late by the time Aneka made it up to the cruiser, but Abby and Tasker were happy to meet with her in the office Abby was using. They were less happy about the story she had to tell.

‘You really think this AI, Winter, has some means of stopping the war?’ Tasker asked.

‘If she says she does, then she believes it,’ Aneka replied. ‘Whether it’s fast enough is another matter, and I don’t know why she wants Abby along.’

Abby shrugged. ‘That seems obvious.’

‘It does?’

‘I’m a diplomat from Old Earth. Actually I’m the diplomat from Old Earth. She wants me to do something diplomatic.’

‘Yeah, but who does she want you to be diplomatic with?’

‘I guess we’ll find out when we get there.’

‘You’re going? Just like that?’

‘I’ve done everything I can here. The Argus has a very capable staff of administrators who can handle liaison. I’ll brief them and go on to the next job.’

‘There are going to be a lot of questions,’ Tasker pointed out. ‘The Administration and the Navy are going to scream like cats in heat.’

‘Yes,’ Abby said, ‘and that’s why we’re going to rope Senator Elroy in on this little conspiracy.’

‘We are?’ Aneka asked, her eyes widening.

‘Yes. Not the details, but enough to convince him. Then he can just state that you’re operating under his authority. If he explained it before we left there would be too many questions and a chance the Herosians would find out. After the fact there’s nothing anyone can do anyway. Leave him to me. I’ll get him on side.’

‘I love working with intelligent people,’ Aneka said, grinning.

‘Where is it you’re going?’ Tasker asked.

‘It’s actually closer to Earth, your Earth, than it is to here,’ Aneka replied. ‘The Federation designation is G-Two-Six-Eight. It doesn’t have a name.’

‘But the “G” means it has a habitable planet, right?’

‘And that could mean someone living there for me to talk to,’ Abby said, nodding.

Aneka was looking at the data Al was displaying for her. ‘Intermediate Population One star, fairly young. It’s been around three billion years or so. That’s not a lot of time for intelligent life to develop, let alone something that could help us.’

Abby shrugged. ‘Maybe they’re fast learners.’

FScV Garnet Hyde, 18.7.529 FSC.

‘Garnet Hyde to New Earth Control, ready for departure.’ Drake released the transmit key and waited.

‘Garnet Hyde, this is Control, clearance granted, you are free to proceed.’

Drake gave a nod to Shannon, and the blonde pilot’s hands slid over the flight controls with the practised ease of someone who had done this many times before. Of course, none of them had plotted to leave the system without permission before, but at least the flying part was easy enough.

‘So far so good,’ Aneka said from the back of the cockpit. ‘First stop is the Hand, to pick up Abby.’

‘I’m aware,’ Shannon pointed out.

‘Sorry. I’m nervous.’

‘You are nervous? This is the kind of thing you do for a living. Well, did for a living.’

‘I dislike plans with too many moving parts. Too much to go wrong.’

Despite Aneka’s misgivings, they were sliding the Hyde into the Hand of God’s hangar bay inside of fifteen minutes, and Aneka went down to meet Abby and Tasker at the airlock.

‘We’re moving out already,’ Tasker said as soon as the inner door was shut behind her. ‘We’ll be in the outer system and ready to run our “test” in about forty minutes.’

‘Gotta love reactionless engines,’ Aneka commented. ‘Any problems?’

‘No. And the techs on the Argus would actually like to run a full test on the sensor and electronic warfare systems. Do you think you can hang around long enough to give us some results?’

‘Run one test, we’ll let you know how it goes, then run a second for confirmation and we’ll bug out during that one.’

Tasker laughed. ‘That actually sounds technically sound.’

Aneka grinned at her and looked at Abby. ‘You ready for this?’

‘The staff on the Argus have been briefed. I’ve sent a message to Prime City explaining what I’m doing. Well, I left out some details and glossed over the fact that we don’t actually know what we’re doing, but it’s the thought that counts. What are the sleeping arrangements?’

‘We just have enough cabins, so no one needs to go into cold sleep, but Drake’s a little concerned about supplies, so the younger members of the crew have volunteered to snooze through most of the trip. You’re not used to it, so…’

‘I can do it, if it would make things easier. It’s safe, isn’t it?’

‘They tell me there are very rarely any problems. I’ve never seen an accident. It’s just not very pleasant waking up.’

Abby grinned. ‘To be honest, getting here was kind of boring. Sleeping through the trip would not make my heart ache.’

‘We’ll discuss it when we’re in flight,’ Aneka said.

‘I’d better get back up to the bridge,’ Tasker said. ‘Abby, you be careful, and good luck to all of you.’

‘Thanks for the concern,’ Abby said, grinning.

‘Yeah, well if you don’t come back it’ll be me that gets it in the neck for letting you go.’ The Captain grinned back at her. ‘So come back. With good news.’

‘We will,’ Aneka replied, hoping she would. ‘And if we’re not back in time… Well, good luck to you guys as well. Tell the crews I’m trying to keep them out of harm’s way.’

‘We did,’ Tasker said. ‘They’re all fairly convinced you’re going to defeat the Herosians all by yourself.’

Aneka sighed. ‘No pressure then, just like always.’

~~~

‘The coverage was very good,’ Wallace’s voice said over the cockpit speakers as it relayed through from the lab to the Argus. ‘I could detect no gaps which were not intended. I’m sending the data over for your technicians to double check anyway.’

‘Thank you, Doctor Wallace,’ the Captain of the Argus said in reply. ‘We couldn’t have done this as effectively without you and the Hyde.’

‘My pleasure, Captain.’

‘Uh, the techs are telling me that they’d like a second run through, just to be sure.’

‘I believe that would be acceptable,’ Wallace replied. Aneka thought he sounded entirely convincing, though the exchange was almost entirely for any Navy ships who might be listening. ‘Captain Drake?’

‘Sounds good to me. Perhaps a different position?’

‘Yes, wait a second, please… Could you take us to two kilometres outside the current fleet boundary? Toward the outer system edge, I think. We’ll scan from there.’

‘We’ll confirm position when we’re there.’ Drake gave Shannon a nod.

‘Are we still going to be covered?’ Aneka asked.

‘That position is within the main jamming envelope,’ Wallace replied, ‘and it will put the fleet between us and New Earth, but there is significantly less danger of our warp field affecting the nearby ships.’

‘Okay. You’re the expert.’

There was a chuckle from the other end of the intercom. ‘Why yes, I am.’

Aneka smiled and said, ‘Aggy?’

‘The warp trajectory is laid in,’ the computer responded. ‘I will initiate engine start-up as soon as the jamming field is in place. We will be ready to leave fifty-eight seconds after that.’

‘We’re in position,’ Shannon said.

Drake hit the comms key. ‘Garnet Hyde to Argus, we are in position. Doctor Wallace suggests a ninety-second jamming burst.’

‘Thank you, Captain. We’re activating the system in three… two… one…’ The transmission dissolved into static.

‘We’ve got a good, solid jamming field,’ Wallace said after a couple of seconds. ‘No gaps at all this time.’

‘Time to warp, fifty-six seconds,’ Shannon said. ‘If anyone wants to jump ship, now’s way too late to attempt it.’

Aneka laughed. ‘What would happen to someone outside the ship when it goes into warp?’

‘The field extends around the hull for several metres,’ Drake said. ‘As long as you’re inside it you’d be dragged with us, but you tend to slip toward the edge. At the edge… Well, it’s not nice.’

‘Part of you drops into normal space,’ Wallace said, ‘while part of you is still within the warp envelope. You get stretched out into a molecular string fairly quickly. It’s a relatively fast, more or less painless death.’

‘Important safety tip then,’ Aneka said, grimacing.

‘Warp in three,’ Shannon stated, not bothering to count it down before she hit the control that launched them into faster-than-light travel. The stars ahead of the ship blurred and shifted rapidly toward the blue end of the spectrum, and they were gone.

19.7.529 FSC.

‘So, what are we going to do about the sleeping arrangements?’ Aneka asked.

The mess room in the Hyde was fairly crowded. Cassandra, who did not eat, had elected to stand. The table was full. Technically the ship could handle the load on the life support systems, but Drake and Bashford were both a little concerned over the logistics, especially since they had no idea what they would meet when they got to their destination.

‘I know I complain every time I get up,’ Gillian said, ‘but I’m happy to sleep this one out.’

‘And if she’s going under, I will,’ Bash added.

‘You and Cassandra aren’t really a resource issue anyway,’ Drake commented to Aneka.

‘I guess we’ll sleep it out,’ Monkey said, glancing at Delta. She nodded, even if she did not look pleased.

‘I guess I should,’ Ella put in.

‘And we only need one pilot,’ Shannon stated.

‘We’ll split it,’ Drake said, nodding. ‘I’ll take the first fifty days, you take it from there?’ He received a nod in reply. ‘Which means Abby doesn’t really need to go under.’

‘We don’t have data on how your body would respond, Abigail,’ Wallace said. ‘It should be fine, but if there’s no need, I’d suggest staying awake.’

Abby sighed. ‘If you think it’s safer.’

‘You can bunk with me if Ella’s sleeping,’ Aneka told her. ‘Us Earth girls should stick together.’ Abby gave her a grin in response. ‘As long as you don’t mind Cassandra watching you sleep. She probably will.’

‘Which does bring us to my requirements,’ Cassandra said. ‘I will need routine maintenance a few times on the flight.’

‘I can handle that,’ Aneka told her. ‘I learned the basics to keep Ella’s eyes up to spec. I can handle the work on you.’

‘Then we are ready. I assume you will be staying awake, Doctor?’ the android said to her boss.

‘Cold sleep does horrible things to my digestion,’ Wallace replied. ‘I have plenty of work to be getting on with.’

‘All right,’ Drake said. ‘We’ll get everyone in the pods after dinner tonight.’

‘Good,’ Ella stated happily. She looked at Abby. ‘If you don’t mind, I’ll be needing the cabin for a few hours to say goodnight to my partner.’

‘A few hours?’ Abby replied.

‘It’s going to be a long night.’

~~~

‘What do you think we’ve got waiting for us?’ Ella asked as she lay in Aneka’s arms.

‘I’ve no idea,’ Aneka replied. ‘The only thing I can think of that would really make a difference to this war is Negral, and that’s a stellar remnant.’

‘Yeah, but what if they survived somehow?’

‘How? Their star was some sort of super-collapsed, ultra-dense degenerate matter and they blew it up. I mean, it’s hard to get a bigger explosion. The gravity wave and gamma pulse almost took out the Delta Brigantia weeks later.’

‘I agree. It would take a miracle, but if Winter thinks she’s got something that big, and there’s nothing else we can think of…’

‘Well,’ Aneka said, ‘there’s one other thing, but it’s just as unlikely.’

‘Oh?’

‘A bunch of Xinti willing to fight for the Jenlay.’

Ella frowned. ‘If they worked out what the Herosians did and decided that everyone else could be saved…’

‘We’ll know in a hundred and ten days.’

‘Wake me up in a hundred. If we’re going to have a horrible death, I want to be really happy before we go.’

‘And if we don’t die?’

‘I’ll still be really happy.’

The Islands, New Earth, 20.7.529 FSC.

‘Reports are starting to come in from Beryum,’ Truelove said from the wall screen. She was at home, and behind her Elroy could see Justine wandering back and forth wearing a short, Nusilk slip. Normally Elroy would have been amused, or aroused, but today it just reminded him of Ollander.

‘I’m going to assume from your expression that the attempt to recapture that world was unsuccessful.’

‘Norton sent nowhere near enough ships to mount a viable attempt. We think it was a total loss, though some ships may have got out. We won’t know for sure for a few days.’

Elroy swallowed back bile and nodded. ‘What did you tell the Oversight Committee?’

Truelove’s lips twitched. ‘I knew about the Garnet Hyde, but it was not an FSA operation and therefore none of their business.’

‘And I assume they were exceptionally happy about that?’

‘Usher just about blew her stack, but there was nothing she could do.’

‘The Administration was similarly unhappy,’ Elroy stated. ‘But they were also presented with a sealed deal, and could also do nothing about it. Let’s just hope Aneka is right about this.’

‘I trust her, but it’s going to take time. It’s over a hundred days to their destination.’

‘You know where they’re going?’

‘Not the coordinates. Safer that I don’t. I know the timescales.’

Elroy’s thin lips pursed. ‘Say a hundred and fifteen before we can possibly hear anything. Over three months. This is going to be difficult.’

‘If anyone can keep a lid on this, you can, Senator.’

‘Thank you for the vote of confidence. I hope it’s deserved.’

FScV Garnet Hyde, 2.8.529 FSC.

‘You have got an amazing body,’ Abby commented as Cassandra finished taking off her shipsuit.

Cassandra smiled at her, a little timidly. ‘Thank you, Abby, though it is that of a relatively well-known sex robot. Many Jenlay view me as… “off the shelf.” Your lack of familiarity is working for me.’

‘You’re selling yourself short,’ Aneka told her. ‘Whoever designed you, they had a reasonably good eye.’ She sniffed. ‘We don’t have a fancy rig, so we’re going to have to make do with the table.’

Sighing, Cassandra clambered up onto the small table bolted to the room’s floor and lay down on her stomach. She looked uncomfortable, but not because of the position.

‘Still bothered about us seeing you opened up?’ Aneka asked.

‘It is not exactly me at my best,’ Cassandra replied. ‘However, it needs to be done.’

‘And I for one,’ Al said, his voice going out to his friend over radio, ‘do not find it even remotely off-putting.’

Cassandra turned her head to give Aneka, and thus Al, a smile. ‘Initiating shutdown. You may proceed when ready, Aneka.’ Her head lowered onto her arms, her body went limp, and two panels hinged back from a seam which appeared from nowhere along her spine.

‘That’s amazing,’ Abby said. ‘I mean, you can’t even tell there’s anything there until it opens.’

Aneka was busy locating the charging port near the base of Cassandra’s spine. ‘That’s bioplastic for you.’ She plugged in a heavy power cable and was rewarded with a red charging light. ‘That’ll take about an hour, the diagnostics will be faster.’

‘And you learned this to work on Ella’s eyes?’

‘Not quite like this, but yes. There isn’t a panel in her head or anything. It’s done by remote. Delta can do it too. She’s actually better than me. As long as there’s nothing wrong, nothing too complex anyway, I can handle it.’

‘But you don’t need this?’ Abby asked, looking up and down Aneka’s body.

‘I do, but I have a bunch of nanobots that do it constantly. Every morning, when I wake up, I get the diagnostic readouts. They usually say “optimal.”’

‘Not always?’

‘I’ve been known to take significant damage. An Enforcer came fairly close to taking me out entirely.’

‘The one you mentioned to Charley?’

‘Uh-huh. I wear heavier armour these days.’ Aneka plugged in a diagnostic computer and began its test sequence. ‘Twenty minutes and then we just wait for her batteries to charge up.’ She glanced at Abby. ‘You know, you’re not used to robots, but you seem to be taking this in your stride.’

‘Cassandra’s not a robot,’ Abby replied instantly. ‘I mean, she is obviously, but she’s a person. And this… Back home they make us have quarterly medicals to make sure they aren’t overstressing us. This isn’t really that different.’

‘I knew there was a reason I liked her,’ Al commented.

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‘Reading?’ Aneka asked.

‘Uh-huh,’ Abby replied. ‘I hope I haven’t been too boring as company.’

Aneka laughed. She was on the bottom bunk, Abby was on the top. In the morning the frozen crew would be waking up for the final ten-day stretch to their destination. ‘To be honest, it’s sort of a pleasant change.’

‘How so?’

‘It’s different. Being in a room with someone who doesn’t want sex every night.’

‘It’s not like we haven’t indulged once or twice. And that time Cassandra joined in…’

‘She is very adept.’

There was some shuffling from the bunk above. ‘Her tongue…’

Aneka giggled. ‘As she pointed out, her model is a popular one, and for good reason. Even if it’s more popular on the Rim. Core world Jenlay like to think they’re above such things.’

‘Is it just me, or do the Jenlay seem kind of hypocritical about sex to you too?’

‘They have a number of little foibles. You’re not wrong. They like to think they’re incredibly liberal, but they have some very conservative attitudes at times. They like to think looks don’t matter, but try getting a partner if you’re ugly.’

‘Is there such a thing as an ugly Jenlay?’ Abby asked, laughing.

‘I’ve met some that could be better. The worst was a man named Ardus Quint. He was a telepath and used to turn women into mindless slaves to get them to sleep with him.’

‘Oh. You said he was a telepath?’

‘He’s dead,’ Aneka said flatly.

‘That… sounds like a good thing.’

‘Yeah…’

There was silence for a few minutes, then the sound of shuffling from above again. Abby’s legs appeared over the side of the bunk and she dropped to the deck.

‘Uh… It is our last night and now I’m stuck thinking about Cassandra’s tongue…’

Aneka laughed and scooted over on the bunk. ‘Come on then. Maybe she’ll join in when she gets back from the lab.’

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‘I am getting too old for this,’ Gillian moaned.

Delta handed her a water bottle. ‘You volunteered,’ she said.

‘Exactly.’ Gillian flipped open the top and drained half the bottle. ‘Clearly all the freezing is bringing on early-onset dementia.’

Drake shook his head; Gillian complained, in the same way, every time she woke up. ‘Aggy? Everything okay?’

‘All systems and crew are functioning within parameters, Captain,’ the AIs voice replied.

‘No Shannon to meet me? I expected her to deliver that report.’

‘Shannon indicated that you should eat and then go to your cabin where she will be awaiting a full debriefing. I would like to point out that this is obviously a euphemism since she is not wearing briefs.’

Abby burst into a fit of giggles and Drake rolled his eyes. ‘Uh, yeah,’ the Captain said, ‘I kind of got that Aggy.’

‘We are nine-point-eight Federal Standard Days from the target system,’ Aggy went on. ‘As yet sensors are picking up nothing much aside from that there is a star there. Doctor Wallace is in the lab with Cassandra working on getting more data, but does not expect to see details soon.’

Drake nodded. ‘Let’s get some food in us. Tomorrow we can discuss plans for our arrival.’

‘Not that there’s much to plan for,’ Aneka said.

‘No,’ Bashford agreed, ‘but you know how I like to have contingencies covered.’

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‘Definitely eleven planets,’ Wallace said. ‘Four gas giants, three rocks, one icy rock, and two planets so close to their star they’re ovens.’ The crew were gathered in the lab where a schematic display of the system ahead of them was gracing the screens.

‘That was ten,’ Drake commented.

‘There’s a garden world, or there would not be a “G” designation. At this range, and with the warp drive engaged, the best I can get is a fairly standard, nitrogen-based atmosphere. It looks like it has a moon from the orbital wobble.’

‘Our target?’ Aneka suggested.

‘That would seem to be a logical conclusion, but I’ll continue refining the scans. We will get more detail as we get closer.’

‘Then we wait,’ Drake said. ‘We can decide on where to exit warp when we know more.’

‘You’re not enjoying this, are you?’ Aneka asked him.

‘Neither is Bash,’ Drake replied.

‘I’m not,’ the facilitator agreed. ‘Too much in the way of unknowns.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Yeah, I can get behind that.’

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‘I’ve enough data to indicate a breathable atmosphere. With the distortion from the warp field we can’t be absolutely certain about contaminants.’ Wallace checked the screen in front of him. ‘I’m detecting three satellites, but the orbits suggest two of them are artificial.’

‘Artificial satellites?’ Gillian asked. Wallace nodded. ‘That system is too young to have a spaceflight-capable civilisation.’

‘Oh, far too young. If I’m detecting them, they have to be fairly large structures. We are talking about an advanced spacefaring culture. That probably means…’

‘Someone has come in and colonised the place,’ Gillian finished for him.

‘Yeah, but who?’ Drake asked. ‘We’re way outside Federation space. Abby?’

‘Not us,’ the ambassador replied. ‘Herosians?’

‘It seems unlikely, but we should be cautious.’ He looked upward. ‘Aggy, give us a course toward the fifth planet. We’ll exit three light-seconds out and scan from there.’

‘Course laid in, Captain,’ Aggy replied. ‘Warp exit in eighteen minutes, twenty-two seconds.’

‘All right. Shannon, Aneka, you’re with me in the cockpit. Everyone else, let’s get ready for whatever reception we have waiting.’

~~~

The view through the front window of the cockpit shifted to normal. Even at this range they could see two large stations hanging in space on either side of the single moon. What they could not see, even after three seconds, were missile launches, and there was no sign of active scanning.

‘Atmospheric data is coming through,’ Wallace’s voice said. ‘Trace chemicals in the atmosphere suggesting volcanic activity. Nothing dangerous. Atmospheric pressure is within tolerances. It’s warm, but nothing excessive.’

‘There’s also surface plant life,’ Ella added.

‘I’m more concerned about those stations,’ Drake said.

Aneka was frowning. ‘Doesn’t one of them look just a little too much like…?’

‘That’s impossible,’ Gillian broke in.

‘Unlikely,’ Wallace corrected. ‘Am I correct in remembering that War mentioned a weapon that could cause a star to go nova which employed a wormhole?’

‘Yes,’ Aneka replied. ‘She did.’

Almost as if in answer, the radio spoke. ‘Federal Science Vessel Garnet Hyde, this is Shadataga Control. Welcome. Please proceed to docking.’

‘Shadataga,’ Aneka said. Drake and Shannon looked at her. ‘It means “Reaching for knowledge,” education.’ She waved at the control panel. ‘May I?’

‘Be my guest,’ Drake replied, activating the transmitter.

‘Garnet Hyde to Control,’ Aneka said, ‘we will set course to your docking bay. You guys have a lot of explaining to do.’

Control’s voice held a hint of humour as she replied. ‘It has taken rather longer than expected for us to speak again, Aneka. We are looking forward to providing you with all the answers you seek.’

Shadataga.

‘Yes, the wormhole we used to collapse our star also acted as our escape route.’ Speaker looked just as he had aboard the station in the Negral system: a distinguished old man in a white suit with a cane clutched in one hand. ‘If you want the details of how it was done, you’ll have to talk to Reality. Physics is not my speciality.’

‘I shall take great pleasure in doing so,’ Wallace said, beaming in anticipation.

‘I take it you’ve been here for a while?’ Gillian added. Her gaze wandered over the courtyard they were in, and the buildings around it.

The AIs had been busy; that was clear just from the construction. To the north were low buildings with large windows which gave the impression of housing; a lot of apartments set around small quads and gardens of local plants. Off to the east and west the structures were more utilitarian and gave no indication of purpose, though there were towers suggestive of cooling systems so there was possibly some heavy machinery in there. To the south, however, there was a more grandiose structure with a motto in Xinti, Latin, Hani, Toremic, and Herica scripts above the large doors. In all of them it read, ‘Seek Knowledge and You Shall Be Rewarded.’

‘We began construction sixteen months ago,’ Speaker said, ‘by your calendar. We needed to build equipment to do the work prior to that. We decided that the attack on Negral should not stop us from continuing our plan for a university.’ He nodded toward the big building with its multi-lingual motto. ‘That is the result. We have student housing to the north, recreational facilities to the east, and our computer and operations centre to the west. Everything is functional, though we have not finished decorating all the apartments.’

‘I’m disappointed, Speaker,’ Aneka replied, grinning. ‘Inviting us here before the work’s finished?’

‘War and Winter were very insistent that we get you here as soon as possible. They are waiting for you in the operations centre. Don’t keep them waiting. Winter has developed quite the independent temperament and she’s getting impatient.’ He smiled. ‘She used to be such a mild-mannered AI.’

‘Huh, right. In that building?’

‘I’m coming too,’ Ella burst out. ‘They’re going to ask you to do something really dangerous. I’m not waiting to hear about it second hand.’

‘Let’s go then,’ Aneka told her, starting toward the western buildings.

~~~

War was a statuesque woman, a warrior figure in a white tunic. Winter’s tall, blonde Number Seven avatar seemed small beside her colleague. The two were waiting in a large room full of consoles and a big, circular, central display table, which looked rather like Winter’s operations room aboard her ship.

Currently, the image hovering over the display table was a galaxy map marked with several bright lights. Al’s pattern-matching algorithms quickly identified several of them. Old Earth, New Earth, and Shadataga were there, so were Beryum, Lonar, and Marchant. There was a dotted line moving out from the furthest out of the lights toward the one which marked New Earth. Aneka frowned at the other lights and then glanced at the two AIs.

‘We have probe ships out in strategic locations,’ Winter said. ‘I’m sure you’ve identified some of them. Possibly not Herosia and Galinor, the current Herosian capital. We detected a large fleet of Herosian ships leaving Herosia. The line is our expectation of their course and an approximate time to arrival at New Earth.’

‘Early next year,’ Ella said, her voice quiet.

‘Unfortunately,’ War said, ‘we cannot enact our plan before they get there, unless our estimate is wrong.’

‘I really don’t think that’s likely. What is it you want Aneka to do?’

‘Straight to business then,’ Winter said. ‘It’s nothing too bad. Just fly to Herosia, plant a computer virus in their central communications hub, and get out without them noticing.’

Aneka looked at the display. ‘That could take most of a year. And when I get there they’ll spot me as soon as I come out of warp, if not before.’

‘We have something special arranged for that,’ War said. ‘A present for you.’ She waved a hand at the display and it shifted to show a sleek, black hulled spacecraft. ‘This is Gwy. She’s waiting for you in the orbital station. Optically camouflaged hull, with stealth characteristics, cloaking system, force field defence system, full electronic warfare system, and beam weapons for offence.’

‘And she’ll do close to a light year in a Federal Standard Hour,’ Winter added. ‘She’ll get you to Herosia in about seventy-one days.’

‘A present?’ Aneka said, her eyes on the image.

‘She’s yours,’ War said. ‘You’ll need to familiarise yourself with her. She’s different from the ships you’re used to.’

‘Once you’re ready, however,’ Winter said, ‘you need to go.’

‘We need to go,’ Ella stated flatly. ‘I’m going too.’

‘Ella…’ Aneka began.

‘No,’ Ella interrupted. ‘You’re going to need help. The AIs can get me chips for engineering skills, electronics operations, piloting… And if you’re walking into that, I’m not letting you go by yourself. You could get killed…’

‘You could get killed!’

‘If we’re both there, then it’s less likely that either of us will!’ Their voices were rising and the two AIs looked at each other.

‘Ella is right, Aneka,’ War said, her voice calm. ‘The two of you together will have a far greater chance of success, and survival. Gwy can carry two easily.’

‘In comfort,’ Winter added. ‘There’s room for training. Seventy days of intensive study and Ella should be well able to handle backing you up.’

‘But…’ Aneka said, frowning. The frown was mostly because they were right and she hated it.

‘They’re right,’ Al said, ‘and you might as well admit it. If it makes you feel better, you can always try to persuade her to stay here while you’re getting ready.’

‘Sure,’ Aneka grumbled. ‘A few days of her proving she’ll be really useful and I’ll persuade her not to go. Uh-huh.’ Aloud she said, ‘I’m not happy about this.’

‘You don’t have to be happy,’ Ella replied, ‘but you do have to be alive. And I’m going to do my best to make sure you stay that way.’

~~~

‘Wouldn’t it be better for Bash or Drake to go?’ Gillian said, worry evident on her face.

The crew were gathered in one of the apartments in the students’ quarters, the one allocated to Aneka and Ella. Each apartment was about the same: a split level structure with lounge, kitchen, and bathroom on one level, and two bedrooms off a balcony above. The decoration varied. The AIs had decided to dispense with the video wall system most Jenlay housing featured, going instead for decorative styles from various periods of Xinti history before they had shifted into artificial bodies. This one featured various geometric designs which Aneka found oddly pleasing, as though she had seen them before even if she had no idea when.

‘War is arranging for a whole bunch of skill chips for me,’ Ella explained in a calm voice. ‘Bash and Drake could handle a lot of things better than I can, but they can’t swap between all of them, and we don’t know what we might need. The only other person here who can do it is Abby, and we can’t ask her to do it.’

‘You could ask,’ Abby replied.

‘No,’ Aneka said, ‘we can’t. You’re needed here. You’ve a treaty to negotiate.’

Abby nodded. She had already sent a message to Old Earth saying that she had arrived safely and was talking to some ‘important alien dignitaries.’ They had all decided that further detail could wait until a decision had been made about how things should go forward.

Gillian looked at Aneka. ‘I don’t understand how you can agree to this.’

‘I’m not happy about it,’ Aneka replied. ‘But she’s got all the AIs on her side and… They’re right. Alone I don’t like my chances, even with that ship they’ve built for me. With Ella there I might be able to pull this off.’

‘All right,’ Drake said. The ex-Navy man seemed rather more sanguine, or perhaps resigned, than the others. Maybe he had done his own assessment and agreed with Ella and the AIs. ‘So the two of you go in there, and do what, exactly?’

‘The AIs have probe ships in various major systems. They’ve been monitoring communications coming out of an asteroid in the Herosia system which seem to indicate that it is the central command and control centre for their war effort.’

‘Not Galinor?’

Aneka shook her head, but it was Ella who went on. ‘No, they think that the central government in Galinor has been sidelined, along with various core elements of the military. You know how the Herosians are. As long as the forces being driven out of Herosia come out on top, the rest of them will step up and say it was a great idea, and until then they won’t do anything either way. They’ll hope to salvage the Federation by claiming that it was just rogues who went to war.’

‘Not that New Earth is going to buy that,’ Monkey put in.

Gillian nodded. ‘Some of the border worlds might be a little more pragmatic, but not the core.’

‘Anyway,’ Aneka said, ‘the AIs have built some sort of computer virus, a non-volitional, replicating AI. It’ll transmit itself out over the tachyon relay system, infecting every Herosian station it comes to. Then it’ll track down and destroy records of Xinti technology, shut down offensive systems where it can, and kill their FTL communications.’

‘Their entire infrastructure will grind to a halt,’ Ella said. ‘They won’t be able to build more ships, and the ones they do have will be crippled as soon as they get within radio range of an infected communications site.’

‘The only problem is that it’ll need to be inserted into that communications hub in Herosia.’ Aneka gave a little grimace. ‘Which is why they’ve built this super-ninja spaceship to get us in there.’

There were some blank looks, including one on Ella’s face. ‘Super-ninja?’ the redhead asked.

‘Ninjas were a type of warrior in ancient times,’ Abby told them. ‘They were famous for stealth and assassination.’

Aneka laughed. ‘You have no idea how nice it is to have someone else to explain stuff like that.’

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There was definitely something ninja-like about the ship sitting in the hangar bay. It was sleek, dart-shaped, and the kind of black that seemed to drink in light. You could imagine it slipping through space without being noticed at all and killing its target before anyone was the wiser. There was a single, slim weapon port under the nose and a turret mounted on either side of the sleek hull forward of the wings. She was obviously designed to be as fast, manoeuvrable, and invisible in an atmosphere as she was in a vacuum.

‘That is an evil-looking ship,’ Drake commented. ‘Beautiful, but nasty.’

‘Can’t wait to see what she can do,’ Aneka replied.

The cockpit of the Gwy was a windowless room in the core of the forward section. Access was a gravity tube from the floor above which housed the two habitation modules. It was a little tight getting everyone in, and there was not much to see, just a pilot’s chair without any sign of visible controls. Drake and Shannon were there, so was Wallace, and Gillian and Bashford were along for the ride. With Ella they were just about at capacity.

‘How do you fly the thing?’ Drake asked, frowning at the blank room.

‘Virtual flight system,’ Ella told him. ‘Another reason why I’m one of the few people who could fly her.’

‘Basically,’ Aneka explained, ‘the ship links to the pilot and the pilot sits in a virtual flight environment. I connect by wireless, Ella can plug herself in. Her reaction time in flight might be a little better than mine.’

‘Almost makes me want an implant,’ Shannon said. Then she grinned. ‘Almost.’

Aneka grinned back. ‘Go get yourselves strapped in and we’ll get underway.’

As they floated back up to the next floor, Aneka settled into the deeply reclined chair and strapped herself in. Gwy was supposed to be capable of phenomenal acceleration, quite sufficient that, even with the compensators, there would be some appreciable pull on course shifts.

‘Okay, Al, initiate the connection and start the software.’

‘Initiating now…’

Aneka found herself sitting more upright in a chair with twin joysticks on the arms. Around her was blackness for the second or so it took for the ship to transfer their environment data through to the software running alongside Al. Then it seemed like she was hanging in space, or inside the hangar bay of the station anyway. Virtual display panels unfolded before her, transparent enough not to obscure her view, but showing all the data she might need to fly the ship.

A soft, female voice sounded from the space around her, seeming to come from everywhere at once. ‘Good morning, Aneka, I am Gwy. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.’

Of course the ship had an AI. ‘Hello. Uh, are we ready for this flight?’

‘All systems are fully functional. Pre-flight checks have been made.’

‘Thank you. Coordinate with Al, please. He’s my backup.’

‘We are already communicating.’

‘Great. Could I have internal comms, please?’ A display lit up to indicate that she did almost immediately. ‘Everyone ready up there?’

‘I’m just strapping in,’ Ella said, ‘then we’re ready.’

‘Not much of a view,’ Drake commented. Then he added, ‘Okay, I take that back.’

‘That’s actually a little unnerving,’ Gillian commented. ‘Even the floor. Uh, we’ve got a full outside view now, Aneka. The whole room just became a video projection suite. It’s like the chairs are sitting on space.’

‘Yeah, I’ve got the same thing going here,’ Aneka replied. ‘Okay, buckle up and we’ll get going.’

Gwy cut the connection before Aneka could ask for it. ‘Flight clearance has been given,’ the computer said. ‘We can make our exit when you are ready.’

Taking a deep breath, Aneka took hold of the controls and nudged the ship around to face the bay doors. It turned instantly, as though it were being moved by some great hand. Aneka grinned.

‘Leave the internal comms on, Gwy. Drake and Shannon will be expecting commentary.’

‘As you wish, Aneka.’

The light came on again as she pushed the ship smoothly toward the hatch. ‘This thing is ridiculously responsive,’ she said.

‘The ship’s we flew around Negral were like that,’ Shannon replied. ‘Reactionless drives take a little getting used to, but they’re amazing.’

‘Gwy’s engine is supposed to be something special.’

‘I read the specs,’ Drake said. ‘Around a hundred Gs maximum thrust.’

‘We have cleared the bay doors and are free to accelerate,’ Gwy announced.

‘Well then,’ Aneka said, ‘let’s see what she can do.’ She pushed forward on the right stick and suddenly they were moving, their pace increasing at an incredibly rapid rate. Not that it was easy to tell since the view in front of them was blackness.

‘Gopi!’ Ella said. ‘Look back at the station.’

Aneka risked a brief look back over her shoulder and sure enough the huge space station they had come from was vanishing into the distance very rapidly. She cut the throttle and moved the left stick, and the ship swung around so that they were flying backward with the station receding in front of them.

‘Oh wow,’ Shannon said. ‘She is responsive.’

‘Aggy will be jealous,’ Drake commented.

‘Maybe we can get her a refit,’ Aneka suggested.

Just for the practice, she swung them around end-over-end, which left them flying ‘upside down,’ if that were a valid orientation in space, and then rolled the ship around its axis until they were upright.

‘You’re playing, Aneka,’ Gillian said.

‘Getting the feel of the ship,’ Aneka replied. ‘That’s right, isn’t it, Drake?’

‘Oh yeah,’ the Captain replied. ‘It looks a lot like playing, but it’s deadly serious. Yup.’

Aneka giggled. ‘Okay. Gwy, let’s bring the warp core online. We’ll go out five minutes or so, then turn around. I just want to know what she feels like.’

‘Warp core online,’ Gwy replied immediately. ‘Initiate when ready.’

‘Hold onto your seats, folks,’ Aneka said. ‘Initiating warp… now.’ She hit a button on one of the joysticks and the world around them blurred, rippled, and went back to normal. Ahead of her, Aneka could see the warp field metrics being displayed. She could hear nothing from the advanced drive and everything looked the way she expected it to look. The speed was a match for the Pegasus, except that Gwy had full defences and the Pegasus was toothless.

‘Okay, I’m going up to see our passengers,’ Aneka said. ‘Give me minimal interface.’

And she was back in the blank walled cockpit with a small, in-vision display giving important flight parameters. Undoing her straps, she sat up and found herself looking at a girl with obsidian skin, opalescent eyes, and a cap of blue-blonde hair. She was not especially tall, had pixie-like, slightly mischievous features, and a young-looking, slim body with long legs.

‘Gwy?’ Aneka asked. ‘Have you been talking to Aggy?’

‘I have had lengthy conversations with Agroa Gar since her arrival,’ Gwy replied, smiling. She had pearly white teeth, literally. ‘She suggested that a humanoid avatar would make things more… comfortable.’

‘Okay, well I assume you can project into the room upstairs as well as my eyes?’

‘Of course.’

‘Then I’ll meet you up there.’ Aneka stepped across the room into the gravity tube and was rising up to the floor above before she had hit the button to do so. Gwy appeared to be a helpful sort of computer.

‘She has been designed specifically for this vessel,’ Al supplied. ‘That means that she is more like me than Aggy, in a way. Her purpose revolves around you.’

‘That’s not going to be a problem if Ella has to fly her, is it?’

‘Gwy is designed to anticipate your needs, but that won’t stop her functioning perfectly well for Ella. She may, in fact, adapt to both of you if Ella is to spend significant time with her.’

Nodding, Aneka stepped out onto the upper deck and turned right into the secondary habitat. The room was configurable. Dynamically configurable. Right now it housed comfortable seating for six, but it could be a conference room, an office, or a sickbay as required. As Aneka walked in, the room display changed from the open star field to a more room-like appearance. They could still see the stars through virtual windows in the side walls and ceiling, but it seemed more solid. And Gwy was standing to one side, arms clasped behind her back.

‘How’s everyone doing? No problems?’ Aneka asked.

‘We’re fine,’ Drake replied. ‘I take it our new friend is Gwy?’

‘Yup. She’s been chatting to Aggy. I assume you know who everyone is, Gwy?’

‘I have been fully briefed on my guests.’ She held out an arm and a display materialised beside Wallace’s chair. ‘I have taken the liberty of arranging the warp core diagnostics for you, Doctor Wallace. I was told you would be interested.’

The aging physicist beamed at the avatar and leaned over to examine the displays.

‘Let me know if you see anything odd, Abraham,’ Aneka suggested.

‘Of course,’ Wallace replied. ‘Not that I expect to find anything odd.’

‘She feels like she’s running smoothly,’ Drake commented.

‘According to the flight data I’m seeing, she is,’ Aneka told him.

‘So you’re still in control, even here?’

‘Theoretically I can initiate the full control environment anywhere on the ship. The bandwidth is more restricted outside the cockpit though.’

‘She’s quite a ship,’ Shannon said.

‘Thank you, Miss Patton,’ Gwy replied.

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Aneka floated in a vacuum, her skin wrapped in living metal, and watched as Ella moved smoothly over Gwy’s outer hull in a Xinti-designed spacesuit. The anthropology specialist was showing remarkable aptitude for engineering at the moment. An hour earlier she had been inside going over the communications system with equal skill.

Gwy had no engine room so if you needed to work on several of the major systems you needed a dry dock or you had to suit up and float around the hull. While it made repairs in battle more or less impossible, it conserved interior space and was not viewed as a problem. In many ways, if Gwy needed to be repaired during a fight she had already failed.

‘It’s pretty amazing what those chips can do for you,’ Aneka commented.

‘Uh-huh,’ Ella replied a little absently as she concentrated on her tasks. ‘I get the knowledge I need, but they also included virtual tutor programmes which take me through a number of tasks step by step.’ She fumbled a securing bolt, cursed, and caught it before it floated away. ‘Of course, it’ll be a lot easier when I have that new suit. The gloves on these don’t make delicate work easy.’

‘You’ll need to familiarise yourself with that too. We’ll do a couple of EVAs tomorrow with it, and some training when we’re in flight.’

‘Uh-huh. Plus I’m going to look really sexy in it.’

Aneka laughed. ‘It’s for protection, not allure.’

‘It never hurts to look good while you’re being badass,’ Ella replied.

20.11.529 FSC.

The mood was sombre as everyone gathered to see Aneka and Ella off. Aneka had decided that Ella was ready enough that they could leave and finish her training on the way. Aneka herself was happy that she could fly Gwy effectively. Both Shannon and Drake had put her through various exercises and declared themselves happy with her performance.

Gillian stood with Ella, looking for all the world as though she were standing in for the redhead’s mother. ‘You will be careful, won’t you?’ the Doctor said.

‘Of course,’ Ella replied. ‘I’m not the one who has to sneak around Herosian space stations.’

‘No, you’ll be the one outside, in a ship, where they can shoot at you with missiles and laser beams.’

‘Gwy has excellent stealth systems. No one is going to know I’m there.’

‘Well…’ Clearly Gillian wanted to say more, but she settled on, ‘If you get the chance, take lots of passive scans. We may never get another chance to see Herosia up close.’

Ella gave a nervous giggle. ‘Well, we have to do scans of the system anyway. I’ll see what I can do.’

The tall, Amazon-like avatar known as War put a hand on Aneka’s shoulder and smiled. ‘None of the Warrior caste to say this, so I shall do my best. Your mission exemplifies the ideals of the Warriors. You seek to act in the smallest way possible to prevent great harm. They lost sight of that goal and their fate was sealed. Perhaps, in some small way, you can redeem their honour, Yrimlos.’

Aneka did not like people using the name the Xinti had given her, but in this case she knew why War had done it. She smiled and used War’s full name in turn. ‘Greatest Heights of Honour, Lowest Depths of Shame, I will do my best to see that I do.’ Then the smile turned into a grin. ‘No pressure or anything. Save the galaxy, redeem my dead caste. I can do that.’

‘If anyone can,’ Speaker said, ‘then I believe it is you. And Ella, of course.’

‘Then let’s not forget Al and Gwy,’ Winter said. ‘We have a team of four going in. I have come to rely on Aneka and Al. Ella has proven more than capable of handling herself in the past. Gwy is new, but I think she will perform well. Al, you should keep an eye on your young colleague.’

‘Tell her I will,’ Al said into Aneka’s mind.

‘Said your goodbyes to Cassandra?’ Aneka replied.

‘Farewell, not goodbye.’

Well, it was a positive thought. ‘Al says he will,’ Aneka said aloud. ‘Ella? You ready? I think we should get going before anyone starts crying.’

‘I’m ready,’ Ella replied, picking up a case with last minute items in it and starting for Gwy’s hatch.

Aneka was about to turn when Cassandra stopped her. The android had a serious look on her face. ‘If I may,’ she said, and then stepped in close, pulling Aneka into a kiss which rapidly became more passionate. Then she pulled back slightly and leaned in toward Aneka’s ear. ‘Keep each other safe,’ she whispered. Then she stepped back and allowed Aneka to continue on her way.

Ella accompanied Aneka down to the cockpit when they were aboard and ready to go. ‘Cassandra’s worried, isn’t she?’ the redhead asked.

‘They all are,’ Aneka replied. ‘It’s to be expected.’

‘Are you worried?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

Aneka smiled at her as the flight environment began forming around her. ‘Us together, love? Nothing we can’t do.’

Part Six: The Battle of New Earth

Gwy, 30.12.529 FSC.

‘Do you want me to say the Renewal tonight?’ Aneka asked.

Ella, lying against Aneka’s side, shifted uncomfortably. ‘I don’t know. Is there a point?’

‘More than ever, I’d have said.’

‘Even if we stop the war, there’s not going to be a Federation after this.’

For a second, Aneka was silent. Then she said, ‘But it’s not about the Federation. The Federation isn’t mentioned. If what we’re doing isn’t fighting to keep the darkness at bay, I don’t know what is.’

It was Ella’s turn to think as she went over the words she had heard since she was a child. ‘Okay. I’m still not sure they have much meaning to the Jenlay anymore, but right now, here, they do. I think we should say it together. Let’s start a new tradition.’

Shadataga, 1.1.530 FSC.

‘As this old year turns and the new one begins,’ Abraham Wallace said, ‘we give thanks for all that has been, and look forward to all that is to come. The Long Dark is gone and we look into the light. Let this First Day be the first of many where we strive to be the best we can be and fight to keep the darkness at bay.’

There was the obligatory second drink and then silence. Cassandra sat among her Jenlay companions watching them think about the words which had just been said, just as they had been said for five hundred and thirty years. She knew they were all wondering whether they would hear them said again, but her own thoughts were less focussed on the impending doom falling upon the Lorenti Federation, and more on the possibility that she would never get to speak to Al again.

In truth, if she were to consider it objectively, it was not just Al. He was the primary object of her affection, but Aneka had become something more than a medium by which she could express her affection for the AI within her. Ella too had become more than an addition to these moments of melded bodies and minds. The girl was so enthusiastic, open, and accepting that you could not help from feeling something for her. She missed all of them and losing any of them…

The capacity to study one’s own mind and the processes it went through to reach conclusions was a uniquely AI thing. Organics were notoriously partisan when it came to self-analysis, but Cassandra had the advantage of total detachment should she wish it. She could turn on internal diagnostics and examine the precise mechanisms her mind used. Every decision tree could be examined in detail as though she were working through the processes of another computer. She had tried to use that technique to determine how she had come to love Aneka, Al, and Ella, and she had failed.

She was not even entirely sure that ‘love’ was the right word for what she felt. She had gone so far as to read philosophical papers on the subject, but had come to no solid conclusion. What she did know was that if she lost any of them there would be a hole in her life which she was unwilling to accept.

They would all come back, alive and well. Cassandra was not going to have it any other way.

The Islands, New Earth.

Jackson Elroy sat in silence, his fifth glass of shinishee in his hand. He was alone, and the Renewal had gone unsaid. He saw no point in it this year, and he had declined all of the invitations he had received to be elsewhere.

His thoughts were on Diana Ollander. There had been no word of any kind from Obati since the Herosian attack, and it seemed very much as though there had been no survivors on the planet’s surface. The serene, beautiful, incredibly intelligent Senator was never going to share his bed again, but more than that, he would never get to cross wits with her again, and that he would miss more than the physical aspect their relationship had gained recently.

There were tens of thousands, even millions, of Jenlay out there who had died or lost their lives in some other, more subtle and perhaps worse, way. It was always difficult to empathise with people you had never met. Diana had been more than a colleague and it was her loss that kept Elroy drinking alone.

Beryum.

The children sat huddled together in blankets. They had spent some time working out which of them was the oldest, and then several of the older children had worked out what the words should be. None of them in the cavern had ever spoken them before, but they had studied the early Federation in History and the little committee was fairly sure they had got them right.

They all knew that there should be drinking, and that the words should be said at midnight, but they only had water to drink and no way to tell the time. So it had been agreed that they would perform the little ceremony together when the lights were turned out. It left them in near total darkness, fumbling for the glasses by the light of a single torch, but they had all agreed that it should be done.

Mizzy listened to the words, shivering and trying to keep her teeth from chattering. She had never heard them said before, not for real. Here, in this place, it was very hard to look into the light. The Long Dark seemed far closer than any bright light of civilisation she could see.

One of the older girls, Deena, wrapped her own blanket around Mizzy as well and the younger girl huddled close as silence fell upon the little group. Mizzy could hear someone crying, softly so as not to be heard by too many of the others. Mizzy did not cry, however. She had done all the crying she could do.

The Islands, New Earth, 20.1.530 FSC.

The wall screen showed several faces. Admiral Pierce was up there, representing the FSA, while Admiral Farmer was handling the Navy’s end of things. Finally there was a man Elroy had only ever seen on a video screen, Philip Norden, the chief strategist of the Old Earth Guardians and the man heading up their part in defending New Earth. Of the three he looked the youngest but was actually the oldest; the two men from New Earth had let themselves age a little, it lent respect, but the Guardians respected fitness and a capacity to win in a fight, not age.

‘Our state of readiness remains high,’ Farmer was saying, ‘but we still have no evidence aside from some reports of dubious origin to say that the Herosians are actually coming.’

Norden, who had supplied the information, said nothing. His expression remained taciturn.

‘The reports are accurate, Admiral,’ Elroy snapped. He knew where they had come from, more or less, and was tired of having to repeat the statement that the source was unimpeachable. ‘We can expect them within the next five days. Are we getting any more intelligence from the Herosian-controlled worlds?’

‘Our agents out there have been heavily compromised,’ Pierce stated. ‘We believe there are survivors on all the worlds they’ve captured. On Beryum they’re being used to continue with the mining. We’ve heard no details from the other worlds. The intelligence we do have suggests that Dokar is a more likely target.’

‘If we were dealing with a conventional battlefield, perhaps,’ Norden said, his voice calm and quite quiet. ‘Dokar lies between the ground they hold and what they want. It is a strategic location. However, it will cost them to take it and they know we have reinforced the Joval system. They do not need to take Dokar when they can simply bypass it and come here with a superior, fresh force. Their choice was made as soon as our vessels arrived in your space.’

‘Just make sure we’re ready for them,’ Elroy said, his eyes on Farmer. ‘Pierce, we need more intel on those worlds, and as much as we can get from beyond the border. Good afternoon, gentlemen.’

Elroy tapped the button on his tablet which disconnected the calls and then turned his head. ‘And what do you have to report, Miss Truelove?’

Truelove walked down to the lounge area, flanked by Justine, and took a seat on one of the sofas. ‘City security is tight, perhaps a little too tight. The Administration is running to paranoid, and the Navy seems to be enjoying this a little too much.’

‘How so?’

‘I’m hearing rumours about Navy influence among the politicians. They’re pressing for greater military control of civilian activities.’

Elroy frowned. ‘I’ll see what I can do about negating that.’

‘My information is that the populations on the three captured worlds are being controlled largely through fear. The Herosians have hostages, children. That’s based on intercepted comm-chatter. There are also signs of increased activity in all three systems, but nothing has left them. I think they’ll hit Dokar if their attack here succeeds.’

‘What about… that other operation you mentioned?’

‘We won’t know how that’s gone until it succeeds. Either it stops the war, or we’re in this for the long haul, but it’ll be another week, longer, before we know.’

‘And their fleet will get here in half that time?’

Truelove nodded glumly. ‘I’m afraid so.’

LV-101 Argus, 23.1.530 FSC.

Norden stood amid the highly organised chaos of the operations room, his eyes on the tactical map displayed in the huge holographic tank which filled the centre of the room. Something vaguely similar was being displayed in the command centre on one of the islands on the planet below where Farmer sat in very similar conditions, its data fed from the command systems aboard the Argus. The logistics vessel had computing facilities the Jenlay had not, yet, contemplated. Its quantum processing units were capable of enormously accurate simulations of battle plans, as well as the integration of data feeds from far more sensor systems.

Yet the Jenlay Admirals had insisted that they take overall command of the system’s defence. Norden considered it a mistake, but it was their world and while Farmer had never fought a real war Norden had to admit that he was in the same position. The last war with the Pinnacle was long before his time. The most he had ever had to fight was a few ogres, but he had actually gone out to fight them. As far as he could tell, Farmer had never fired a weapon in anger.

The fact that the leader of the Jenlay Navy was doing his leading from a bunker on the planet was not a good sign either. A general who led from the rear was a poor general, in Norden’s book. The Argus was a wonderful ship, but it was largely unarmed, and that meant that Norden was unhappy with his position. He was more at the front than Farmer, but he would have liked to have been aboard the Helios, in the fighting.

‘What are you running?’ The voice came from Norden’s left. He did not need to look to know that it was Janis Hunt, the ship’s Captain. She would be in her full combat uniform and he did not need the distraction of seeing her in it. Norden had stopped using cyberdrugs several years ago because he felt his head was clearer without them. Yrimtan had personally questioned him on the decision, but had seemed happy with his choice. Unfortunately, it also left him more open to the attractions of a woman as pleasant to look upon as Captain Hunt.

‘Probable deployments of an attacking fleet based on known characteristics of the Herosian ships, our deployment, and what they are likely expecting us to be doing.’

Hunt was silent for a while as she watched the display. Points appeared around the simulated planet, arcing through imaginary space toward other dots already in place.

‘That would appear to be a very conservative opening gambit,’ she said.

‘They don’t know our strengths and weaknesses. If it were only the Jenlay, they could afford a more forceful beginning, but they have us, an unknown, to deal with. Unfortunately, details on their fleet are incomplete, so my simulations are… too approximate for my taste.’

Without warning the simulated tracks vanished and new dots appeared in the hologram tank. At the same instant both of them saw streams of data appearing in their vision fields.

‘Warp exit signatures,’ Hunt said.

Norden allowed himself to look at the Captain. Things could go very well or very badly in the next few hours. If it was the former, he intended to persuade Hunt that her body could be used for something other than fighting when they were done, and he wanted to know what he was fighting for. If it was the latter… Well, he deserved something nice to think about as he tried to breathe vacuum.

‘You’d better get to the bridge,’ he said. ‘Good luck, Janis.’

She looked a little surprised at his use of her first name, but she nodded. ‘Same to you. Let’s hope the Jenlay know what they’re doing.’

New Earth Naval Command, The Islands.

Farmer sat in his command position, his eyes on the displays arrayed in front of him. They showed around sixty vector tracks, each of them a Herosian vessel which had appeared in the system less than a minute ago. As he moved his head to scan over them, detailed information was displayed in the heads-up mount positioned over his right eye. Three battleships, one of them of an unknown design, each accompanied by three destroyers. Twenty cruisers were out there, moving in toward New Earth, at least twenty frigates, though there seemed to be some of the stealth models as well and the system was having trouble with those. They had brought heavy gunships, vessels designed for planetary bombardment.

‘Orders, sir.’

Farmer glanced at the Commander who had made the request, a slight woman he could not remember the name of. He looked back at the screens and the three-dimensional mapping they were displaying and gritted his teeth. The bastards were not going to get away with invading his system.

‘We attack,’ Farmer growled.

FNf Delta Brigantia.

Anderson did not exactly sit in her command chair; the Captain’s position was more like a vertical bench into which the senior officer was strapped, supported by something like a bicycle saddle and surrounded by a globe of visual display equipment. A lot of male officers found it a rather uncomfortable arrangement, but none could deny that it gave an excellent overview of the space surrounding your ship.

Right now Anderson’s display was showing empty space and some data points indicating distant enemy vessels. There was also a panel which had recently appeared containing the orders Admiral Farmer wanted carried out and they were exactly what she had expected to see coming out of her fleet Commander. She reached out, fingers shifting over a virtual keypad.

‘Prentice,’ she said, her voice calm but authoritative, ‘give me a course matching that attack vector. Hughes, weapons systems to full power. Baron, I’ve transferred our assigned targets; I want a weapons lock on our primary as soon as possible.’

Around her, her A-Shift crew began to move immediately. They were among the best in the fleet, maybe the best frigate crew, but this was the first time they were ever going to see a battle on this scale. She hit the interior broadcast button on her comms display.

‘All hands, this is Anderson. Secure vessel for battle, gunners to turret positions. This is it, people, the war has come to New Earth. We’ve trained for this, we know what we’re doing and how to do it. We’ve always said that we’re the best crew in the fleet, well this is our chance to prove it.’

She cut the broadcast and checked their status. They were already accelerating toward a squadron of gunships which was moving in toward the planet. Telemetry data on the one Command had designated as their primary target was already starting to come in on part of her screen.

‘Time to intercept,’ Baron said, ‘nine hundred and thirty-two seconds.’

FNb Admiral Banfry.

‘All stations report ready, Captain,’ Leeforth reported. ‘Turret controls are manned.’

‘Thank you, Commander,’ Ape responded. The screens on either side of him had reported the same, but there were formalities to the art of war aboard a ship the size of the Banfry. ‘Time to target?’

‘Thirteen hundred and thirty-nine seconds to maximum firing solution range.’

Ape’s eyes scanned over his displays. The Banfry and her squadron were being sent out to intercept one of the two ‘conventional’ battleships on the other side. From his position, it was a relatively foolish move, but he did not have the overview of the Herosian forces that Farmer did. It was possible that the Admiral, back in his nigh-impregnable bunker back on the planet’s surface, could see something Ape could not, but it seemed a lot like the old fool had decided to throw his ships into an inadvisable attack when a solid defence would have meant the Herosians coming to them.

‘Re-plot the firing solutions. Hold the missiles until we’re in range for the antimatter canon. Lasers to fire as soon as they can be brought to bear. Give orders for the frigates to go in on harrying raids. Cruisers are to take out anything that breaks away from their main group.’

‘The destroyers, sir?’

‘Point defence. I expect we’ll need it. Targets of opportunity where they can engage.’

‘Aye, sir,’ Leeforth said, turning back to her console.

Ape looked at her slim back, just visible around the structure of her acceleration couch. Leeforth had always reminded him, just a little bit, of Gillian Gilroy, the mother of his son. He told himself that he had not allowed that to affect his judgement when he had asked her to become his executive officer, but right now, before they went into full-scale battle together, he allowed himself to recognise the fact that there had been more than a little partiality in the decision. She was an excellent XO, but she also reminded him that there were things other than warships to think about.

Ten Kilometres Outside Yorkbridge.

Janna looked across at the woman sitting beside her, a tall, scarlet-haired woman with a chest which matched her own. She remembered seeing the same figure, or almost the same, at the party after her partnership registration ceremony. Except that version had been shorter, with less chest.

‘I still can’t believe you came to one of my parties,’ Janna said, mostly for something to say.

Winter looked relaxed, but she was driving, manually, as fast as the car could handle. ‘Sharissa is a friend, and Aneka is…’ She glanced at Janna. ‘She isn’t exactly my daughter, of course, and I’d never try to replace the mother she had, but I put a lot into what she is now. She’s more than a friend, far more than a part of a project I was made responsible for.’

‘It’s odd. I mean, you’re this super-intelligent artificial mind. Somehow I’d have thought that would make you less emotional, but here you are creating attachments to ordinary people.’

‘I can be unemotional if I need to be, but I see no point in denying myself the full range of interaction possible with other beings. My feelings for Aneka have never stopped me sending her into dangerous situations where I thought that was the best course of action.’

‘She’s safe now, though? She and my daughter?’

‘They are a long way away from here, Janna,’ Winter replied, and hoped that the woman would not recognise the evasion. ‘Now we just need to get you somewhere safe.’

‘Why are you protecting me? I’m no one…’

‘Ella would likely dismember me if I let anything happen to you, and while I don’t think she could really do me too much harm herself, Aneka would help. Besides that, Sharissa will do a much better job knowing you are somewhere safe and I can spare an avatar to achieve that.’

‘And Sharissa?’

‘Is a survivor. Elaine has assigned her to a duty which will help our position and put her in as safe a place as anywhere else on the planet. Don’t worry, Janna. We’re all going to get through this, or none of us will. If it’s the latter then worrying over it is pointless.’

The Islands.

‘Senator,’ Sharissa said as she walked into Elroy’s lounge, ‘I need you to come with me, now.’

Elroy looked away from his wall screen where several Representatives were chattering at once and frowned. ‘Agent Torrence,’ he acknowledged. ‘I am a little busy.’

‘Yes, sir. We have a transport waiting with a full communications rig. You’ll be out of touch for a couple of minutes, but we need you on it.’

Maybe it was the fact that Sharissa was carrying a heavy-looking carbine and dressed in combat armour, maybe it was her tone, but Elroy had the feeling she was not really making a request. He cancelled the mute on his end of the debate. ‘Representatives, I need to go offline for a few minutes. I’ll be back with you soon. Please remember that the Navy is fully ready to fend off this attack. What we need now is calm and the public following their local emergency plans. I suggest you all begin implementing those.’ He cut the connections without further comment and got to his feet. ‘Where are we going?’

‘We’ve got an FSA submersible stationed off one of the outer islands. It was designed as an emergency command and control vessel should the land-based facilities be compromised. Secure, difficult to detect, capable of hiding in deep water if needed.’

‘Winter thought of everything, didn’t she?’

‘Almost everything.’

‘You think the Herosians will make it to the surface?’

‘They don’t have to, Senator,’ Sharissa replied. ‘My information is that they’re likely to get at least one heavy gunship within striking range, and right now you’re sitting here not far enough from their biggest target.’

Naval Command.

‘How long until first contact?’ A display appeared on Farmer’s personal screens showing a timer counting down. Just over two minutes until the first shots were fired. There were fighters launching already. Farmer could feel his heart rate increasing, knew that adrenalin was pumping through his veins. This was it, the moment when the Navy showed what it could do, and he was the one in command of the operation.

‘Sir, we’re getting analysis of the Herosian battle formation through from the Argus.’

Farmer glanced at his unknown Commander. ‘And?’

‘The vectors suggest that they’re planning to push through with their gunships. Fifteen gunships armed with planetary bombardment weapons, each carrying three landing craft.’

‘They won’t get that close.’

‘Yes, sir, but, sir…?’

‘Spit it out, Commander.’

‘It’s not a large enough force. They can’t be meaning to take the city with thirty squads. They’re going to target the spaceport, and us.’

Farmer felt his stomach lurch, but his brain kicked back in quickly. ‘We’re in a bunker designed to stop nuclear weapons and we have orbit-capable defence missiles. Besides, they won’t get that close.’ He turned away, glancing at the timer just as it ticked down to zero. ‘And I have other things to keep me occupied.’

BC-101 Hand of God.

The only sounds on the bridge of the Hand of God came from the instruments and systems. The crew said nothing, they had no need to. Their implants ran software which tied the entire, active crew into a network of synchronised, highly skilled components operating within a highly complex and efficient system which was their warship. Via external link, the ship’s Captain was part of a larger network with the other ships in the fleet, coordinated through the Argus.

Charlene Tasker watched as the Herosian battleship ahead of them, a Xinti design they had repaired and re-commissioned, entered their firing solution. They had been tasked with its destruction because they had technology which matched it, possibly exceeded it. A thought in her mind blossomed into a stream of gamma-rays bursting from their main weapon system. One hundred gigajoules of energy transmitted through space as high-energy photons.

To Charley it almost felt as though she was screaming destruction at the Herosian ship.

FSA Submarine.

‘The Hand of God has engaged with the Herosian Mordra Kai-class,’ Truelove announced.

Pierce, sitting in a small office off the main operations room, nodded. ‘The rest of the fleet?’

‘Engagement in about four minutes.’

‘Those Old Earth ships are fast. They have some quite considerable technology.’

‘Yes, sir. Senator Elroy is on his way. We expect him to arrive in five minutes, then we can submerge.’

‘What about communications?’ Pierce asked. He was used to space and the idea of being in a tin box was fine, but underwater was less of a pleasing concept. Water would crush you…

‘There’s a buoy. It limits our depth to around a hundred metres, but it gives us a far smaller signature than this hull.’

Pierce nodded and Truelove turned back into the operations room. ‘Have we got that network up for the Senator?’ she asked anyone who might have an answer.

‘Second office is configured for it,’ one of the technicians said. Truelove’s implant supplied her with a name: David Gallow.

‘Thank you, David,’ she replied and she got a smile in reply. If there was one thing Winter had taught her it was that knowing people’s names was important. She doubted Pierce knew many of the names on this boat.

‘Nice touch, using his name.’ The voice was in Truelove’s head, transmitted via her implant. She glanced at its owner, but Janine was busy at one of the terminals. ‘Did I teach you that?’ the voice added.

‘The other you, yes. Winter used to know the name of every captain of every ship in the Navy. I think she knew every agent in the Agency.’

‘It’s easy when you can just download the files and run facial recognition.’

‘I have to rely on my brain for the last bit, but that’s where I got his name from.’

‘You’re going to end up leading the FSA. You know that, right?’

‘Eventually, maybe, if we live through this.’

‘Have some faith.’ Janine turned around and spoke aloud. ‘The Vertol’s overhead.’

‘They’re early,’ Truelove responded.

‘Yeah, well, Agent Torrence is flying it.’

Truelove grinned. ‘All right, let’s get them aboard. Prepare the ship for underwater operation; we’re diving as soon as our guests are through the hatch.’

FNf Delta Brigantia.

‘Frigate!’ Anderson snapped. ‘Port side, twenty degrees down…’

‘Got it!’ Grant’s voice came back over the intercom. He was a technician with a speciality in gunnery, but he was pretty useful at firing the things too.

In the port side console in front of Anderson, Hughes was timing his shots on the main gun and directing one of the three forward turrets. He had to work with their pilot, Shari Prentice, to get the main gun in line for firing since it was a fixed, forward-facing mount. She had to line up his shots and try to avoid getting hit at the same time and she was doing it with the skill of a woman who had, apparently, been born in a pilot’s chair.

Anderson let them work, keeping an overview of their environment with the help of Baron, their navigator and sensor operator. So far her crew was living up to its reputation, but they were barely engaged in the battle and there were a lot of ships out there who wanted them dead.

She saw the bright flash of a missile detonation as the keel turret took it out a few hundred kilometres away. Lots of Herosians wanted them dead, but they were going to live through this if it killed her.

LV-101 Argus.

Norden followed the flow of battle, his expression serious. He wondered whether Farmer was seeing the same thing he was, or whether the arrogant Jenlay was seeing only the Herosian losses.

In truth, he considered that unlikely. The superior technology of the Old Earth ships was proving highly effective and the losses were primarily in Herosian and Jenlay forces. Farmer had to be seeing that and, given the characterisation Norden had formed of the Jenlay Navy’s command, the result could go one of two ways. Farmer might get angry and try throwing his forces in harder. It seemed more likely that he would get scared and go on the defensive.

As the final stages of the Herosians’ initial battle strategy played out and their forces turned to create a shield around their gunships, just as Norden had predicted, he solidified his prediction of Farmer’s reaction. The formation was a battering ram to drive the gunships through to New Earth. Given the earlier estimations of their available ground forces, that meant they were coming for Farmer himself and while Norden was sure the Admiral would risk a few civilian lives, he would not risk his own.

Naval Command.

‘Get the troops in from the city,’ Farmer snapped. ‘I want a defensive formation set up on this island and the spaceport. Get the missile batteries online and start scanning for targets.’

‘Sir, they’re over an hour away at this pace,’ the Commander said.

‘Do it! All ships to defensive formations. I want full orbital coverage. Get that Old Earth battleship in position above us. Lighter craft to harry their rear, everything else form a barrier. We can’t let them get through.’

The Commander, whose name was Litia Henderson, turned back to her console and began issuing orders. In a window at the rear of the display now, she could just see part of an email she was writing whenever she had a spare moment. It was to her partner in Yorkbridge, only a few kilometres and an eternity away, who she was sure she was never going to see again. She estimated she had time to finish it, maybe another ninety minutes, but she wanted it done and sent in less. When those gunships got in range, she was quite sure she was going to die.

FNb Admiral Banfry.

‘New orders coming in, Captain,’ Leeforth said.

Ape looked down at a screen which had changed to show the new battle order. ‘Of course, now we’re on the defensive because he’s worked out they might get in range to shoot at him. Swing us around, full thrust for New Earth. I want as many batteries as possible on defensive fire so give us an oblique course. Engineering, I want a prediction on reaction mass usage.’

‘Think we can stop them getting through?’ Leeforth asked. It was apparent from her tone that she did not.

‘No. If we’re lucky we can thin them out some before they get there. Tell the squadron to run interference for us; most of them are better equipped for fast retreats than we are.’

Leeforth swallowed and turned back to her console. The main engines had already kicked in at full burn, but the battleship was not exactly a speedy vessel. The Captain was right: this was going to be a tough run.

Norden Forest.

Janna had insisted on seeing what was going on and refused to let Winter turn the displays in her ship off even though she sat there with a look of horror on her face as the battle’s progress unfolded in front of her.

‘So many lives,’ Janna whispered.

‘So far we don’t know the actual casualty level,’ Winter replied. ‘We’re looking at equipment disabled more than people hurt.’

‘But people will have been hurt,’ Janna countered.

‘Yes.’

‘Do you think it’s possible they’ll win? The Herosians?’

‘It’s a battle, Janna,’ Winter replied flatly, ‘just about anything is possible.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

The reports on the battle were not exactly detailed, or complete, but CFM was reporting as best it could, frequently citing the changing position as an excuse for the lack of information. Katelyn sat on the couch in the apartment she shared with Dillon, her partner, and watched it with a mixture of frustration and growing alarm.

‘This isn’t looking good,’ she said.

‘No,’ Dillon agreed. He was busy in the kitchen and she was not exactly sure why. She was not hungry and she could not see how he could eat under the circumstances.

‘It’s sketchy, but I get the impression the Herosians are closing in on the planet.’

‘No, they’re closing in on the city.’

‘What?!’

‘Stands to reason,’ the big man replied. ‘There’s not much on this rock worth attacking. They may hit the orbital station, but their main targets are going to be the spaceport and the city.’ He sounded too calm.

‘Oh.’

‘So get your ass off that seat, we’re leaving.’

‘What? Where are we going?’

‘Underground. The subway might not be safe, but it’ll be a lot safer than a tower block if they start bombing. Get that sleeping bag out of the second bedroom. We might be down there for a while.’

Feeling slightly dazed, Katelyn got up and headed for the bedroom door.

FNf Delta Brigantia.

The Brigantia swung hard around and, still moving in the direction its momentum was carrying it in, opened fire on the nearest gunship. Its turrets were engaging missiles and ships in all directions, but still the odd beam cut across her hull.

‘Damage report,’ Anderson requested.

Scotts, the chief engineer, responded almost immediately. ‘She’s holding together. We’ve got a coolant leak somewhere in the reactor. I’ve isolated it, shouldn’t be a problem. Hull is intact, but I’d appreciate it if Shari could dodge a few more of those graser beams.’

‘She’s doing the best she can. Keep her flying.’

‘Doing the best I can.’

Anderson allowed herself a small smile. ‘Did you hear that, Prentice? Scotts wants you to dodge more.’

Prentice’s voice sounded strained when she replied. ‘If he wants to come up here and see if he can do better…’

‘Pretty sure he can’t. Pretty sure no one can. You’re the best pilot in the Navy, and don’t you forget it.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Prentice replied, sending the ship into a tight spiral which avoided a particle beam and brought her in line for another shot from the main gun.

Herosian Flagship.

Sin’Doffis watched the progress of the battle in a holographic display not unlike the one Norden was using. The main difference between the two was that Norden knew who had built his tank; Sin’Doffis considered the thing something akin to magic, much as was the case with most of the Xinti battleship it was housed in. It worked, that was all he cared about.

What it showed was that they were taking losses, but those losses were within tolerance. The defending forces were not faring so well. Calculation suggested the Herosian fleet had inflicted twice as much damage as it had taken in the initial assault. As he had expected, the Jenlay had gone to a defensive posture after that and their proportional casualty rate had dropped, but they were still losing people and ships faster than his fleet was.

‘When will we have the gunships in artillery range?’ he asked of the Commander acting as his assistant.

‘A little over half of one hour, Admiral. We are taking losses, however. The Jenlay are specifically targeting those vessels.’

Sin’Doffis nodded. ‘Yes, and taking heavier casualties because of it. Tighten the defences around the core and accelerate. Plough through them.’

Naval Command.

‘This is not going fast enough,’ Farmer growled. ‘I want those gunships disabled.’

‘The Herosians have tightened their defensive grid,’ Henderson replied. ‘The frigates can’t get in without getting themselves blown to Hell. Missiles haven’t a chance of getting past the point defences.’

‘I don’t want excuses, I want results!’

Henderson turned and glared at the man. ‘They can’t perform miracles, Admiral, and they can’t fly through solid metal.’

‘You’re relieved, Commander,’ Farmer snapped. He looked at the nearest ranking officer. ‘You, take over the Commander’s position.’

Without a word, Henderson got to her feet and headed for the door of the operations room. Even if they court-martialled her she was going to be happier out of sight of the fool they had running the battle.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

The subway station was full of people. The trains had been stopped, the lines shut down, and even the track space was occupied by people hiding from the coming Herosian invasion.

Dillon found a space a few yards down the tunnel, under part of the platform structure which extended down there for service personnel. He laid out their sleeping bag and sat on it beside Katelyn, his arm around her shoulders.

‘Do you think it’s safe down here?’ Katelyn asked. ‘I mean, it’s not that deep…’

‘It won’t stand a direct hit, but it’ll protect us if they hit other areas.’

‘You really think they’ll hit the city?’

‘I think they’ll hit the spaceport. The Navy has its command bunker there. I think they’ll use planetary bombardment weapons on it from orbit, like they did at Obati.’

‘Nukes?’

‘No need. They throw a big, heavy projectile from orbit. It’s got the force of a nuke without the fallout. They can roll in after and not have to clean up the mess.’

‘Oh.’

There was silence aside from the mutter of conversation at low volume. No one was saying anything loudly, as though the Herosians might hear them and drop a projectile on them.

‘I’m cold,’ Katelyn said after a few minutes.

There was a cold draft flowing down the tunnel. One of the reasons Dillon had moved out of the main station area was that the heat in there had been oppressive with so many Jenlay crammed together.

‘We’ll get into the bag,’ he said, ‘cuddle up.’

‘Yeah,’ Katelyn replied softly. ‘I could use a cuddle about now.’

FSA Submarine.

Truelove scanned the displays, finishing on a timer she had set up in one corner of a screen. It was the estimate of how long they had before the Herosians would be in range to start firing on the planet. There was not a lot of time left.

‘Agent Truelove?’ Pierce’s voice was calm, almost too calm, but then he was not anywhere likely to come under fire in the immediate future.

Truelove turned and stepped into the office. ‘Sir?’

‘Do we have backup systems in place in case of the loss of Naval Command?’

‘The Argus will take over. Their strategist, Norden, will take command of operations.’

Pierce frowned as though he had not been expecting that. ‘Under direction from here, of course.’

‘No, sir. This facility doesn’t have the bandwidth to run that kind of operation and, if you’ll pardon my candour, you are head of the FSA, not the Navy.’

There was a flicker of anger on his face, and then he was calm again. ‘Of course. Dismissed, Agent.’

Truelove turned and walked back to her displays.

‘Old soldier wanting his chance at glory?’ Janine’s voice said inside her mind.

‘Yeah, I think so. He didn’t like being told he wouldn’t get it.’

‘Elroy and I have your back, girl. Don’t worry about him.’

‘I’m more worried about what’s going on up there. This is getting bad. I don’t see how we can turn this around.’

‘Huh. About the best thing that could happen now is losing Naval Command. If anyone can pull our fat out of the fire, it’s Norden.’

‘Let’s hope so.’

BC-101 Hand of God.

‘Midsection batteries to point defence mode,’ Tasker ordered silently. ‘I want those bombs stopped.’

‘We’ve got nine gunships firing on the planet,’ her XO reported. ‘We can’t stop all of them.’

‘We stop what we can. Bring us around to line up the main gun.’

FNb Admiral Banfry.

‘All guns, open fire,’ Ape snapped, his eyes on the display showing the gunships moving into position. ‘Have the destroyers concentrate on point defence.’

‘That’s going to leave us open,’ Leeforth commented, even as her fingers shifted over the keyboard to issue the orders.

‘We can take a few hits; we need to halt those projectiles.’

LV-101 Argus.

Norden scanned the projection data coming through from the computers. The probability of a resolution which benefited the Jenlay was getting smaller the further they went down this line. Farmer was too busy trying to avoid the inevitable to respond correctly. He refused to risk attack because he saw death hanging over him.

A thought directed the Old Earth frigates in for one more assault on the gunships. They had been designed to operate as anti-piracy vessels and so had been equipped with radar obfuscating hulls. It reduced their exposure to weapons fire and gave them a better chance of hitting their targets while in the midst of enemy shipping.

Right now, looking at the projections, he had no doubt that things were going to get bad on the planet below.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

Henderson had managed to get onto a courier transport headed into the city. Sitting in the back, she was monitoring the comm-chatter she could pick up on her combat suit’s radio and wondering when the first thing would break through the perimeter above them.

So far the point defence fire from the warships and ground batteries was stopping everything, but that could not last. It would take one slip, that was all. She prayed that, when that slip happened, she would have enough time to get to cover.

The vertol was over Mid-town and about to swing north when she heard it. ‘Three incoming! Get them! For fuck’s sake…’

Henderson bolted forward to the cockpit door. ‘Get us on the ground, now!’

‘But…’ the pilot began.

‘No buts, do it or we’re dead.’

The small jet veered violently downward, aiming for a gap between the towers. Henderson clung to the doorframe aware that at any second the sky could fill with light and they would have seconds before the blast hit, assuming the heat from the impact did not take them out.

‘Fuck! Break away! Break!’ The voices in her earpiece told her what she had expected; something had got through. She bolted for the rear hatch, jumping out of it before the aircraft had touched down. The glare filter on her visor cut in, almost blinding her to save her from being blinded. She had seen a subway entrance a few metres away as she dropped to the road, and she bolted for that now, desperate to make it to more cover before the blast wave hit.

She had just dropped into the stairwell when the overpressure smashed into her like a tonne of solid Plascrete.

FSA Submarine.

‘We’ve lost contact with Naval Command,’ Truelove informed Pierce. ‘We also lost the surface buoy. We’re deploying the backup, but we’ll be offline for a few minutes.’

‘Do we know where that shot hit?’ Pierce asked.

‘The spaceport, just on the edge but it was bad enough to rip the buoy off its cable even out here.’

‘Farmer had moved the ground troops in to fend off a surface deployment, am I correct?’

Truelove swallowed. ‘Yes. We’re probably looking at a near total loss.’

‘It’s all down to this Norden then. Do you think Farmer could have survived that?’

‘That one, probably, but there were two more on the way in before we lost comms. One of them looked like it would hit the bunker direct.’

Pierce nodded. ‘See if we can get any information on the situation there once we have a connection.’

Truelove nodded. She was not expecting the results to be good.

Naval Command.

The lights flickered back to life and Farmer looked up at the Plascrete ceiling. The sound of groaning structural members had been loud and he had half expected the roof to fall in, but it looked like they had survived. More or less.

‘All contact lost with the surface,’ his assistant reported. ‘No communications, no sensors. We’re dumb and blind. The main entrance is blocked, but it looks like the evacuation tunnel is intact.’

Farmer opened his mouth, and then stopped as the room shook once more. Dust and small fragments of Plascrete fell from the ceiling. ‘Sound the evacuation,’ Farmer said, getting up from his seat and starting for the door. ‘We’re doing no one any good here, right? We need to… I need to get out of here… To regain command.’

Horns began to sound as he walked purposefully toward the large emergency hatch. It began to grind upward before he got there. Yes, he would get out of here, live to fight another day. That was the important thing now. There was nothing he could do for the people above while he was down here, cut off…

He stepped into the corridor and started down it, and that was when the entire building lurched violently downward. He managed another step forward before the roof of the passageway collapsed on top of him.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

Katelyn lay in the darkness, her mouth full of sleeping bag fabric. The makeshift gag was there to make sure she did not scream, either from the shudders that ran through the tunnel or the feeling of Dillon sliding inside her.

She had been terrified, cold, too numb to think, and they had resorted to the one thing that always made them happier, no matter the circumstances: sex. When she had felt Dillon’s big hands sliding under her shirt she had wondered how he could possibly be thinking of that under the circumstances. The more his skilled fingers teased at her nipples, the more she had realised that he was right. Terrified as she was, all she could think of after a minute or two was that if they were going to die, she wanted to feel him inside her one last time.

So she had pushed her jeans down and he had spooned tighter against her, and their bodies had joined. The danger and the close proximity of their neighbours had added spice. Even when all the lights had died and they were left in the pitch black, they had continued. Katelyn wanted him to come inside her, so that he had done it before the end, and yet she wanted this to last forever because she felt as though when he did finally explode, taking her with him, that would signal the end of everything.

LV-101 Argus.

Norden registered the loss of communications with the surface installations as little more than a blip in his data feeds. Everything had been routed through the Argus anyway; the surface systems had provided little in the way of intelligence.

It did leave him in command of the battle, however, and he was prepared for that. Several processors had been running potential plans and he was left now with a choice of three options which were likely to actually improve things. He selected the riskiest.

Herosian Flagship.

Sin’Doffis watched the sudden shift in the flow of battle and frowned. Roughly half of the Jenlay fleet was inactive or dead in space while less than a third of his forces had fallen victim to the defending ships. Now the more advanced Old Earth vessels seemed to be pulling out. He could not believe his luck.

The New Earth ships were swinging around in lower orbit to come up at the Herosian attackers, a tactically weak position, but they were forced into a position of trying their best to attack a far superior force as their reinforcements shifted out of position with acceleration neither they nor the Herosian ships could match.

‘The vectors indicate the Old Earth fleet is scattering,’ his assistant said. ‘They’re pulling out. We’ve won.’

Sin’Doffis gave a grunt, still not entirely able to believe it. Still… ‘Press the attack,’ he ordered. Whatever the case, they had an advantage right now and they needed to make use of it.

Norden Forest.

‘What’s happening?’ Janna asked. ‘Are they leaving us?’ She was feeling sick to the stomach already and now it looked like their saviours were abandoning them.

Winter was silent for a moment, watching the dots moving on the screens and the communications traffic flowing through her mind. She smiled.

‘It’s risky, but it might work.’

‘What?!’

‘The Old Earth ships have reactionless drives. They’re capable of acceleration the other ships up there couldn’t match if they tried. See how fast they’re pulling away? Well, they can swing around just as fast…’

‘And hit the Herosians from behind while they’re concentrating on the defensive pattern.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Vashma, I hope it works.’

FNf Delta Brigantia.

The small vessel twisted and turned as it tried to dodge through a volley of missiles and take aim at the ships in higher orbit. Prentice was doing her best, but Anderson figured it was only a matter of time before one of the nukes got too close.

They had already lost one of the forward turrets to a beam weapon. Grant was working to get it operational again, but there was a lot of damage and they needed everything they had if they were going to survive this. There were a lot of dead ships out there and Anderson did not want to join them.

‘Hold together, girl,’ she whispered to the frigate. ‘You’ve survived worse than this.’

As though in answer, the main gun let loose a stream of high-energy anti-protons. There was an answering explosion along the surface of their target, a gunship, followed by a larger, interior detonation, and Hughes let out a howl of victory.

Prentice yanked the ship into a tight turn, corkscrewing around toward the outer edge of the Herosian front, but she was not quite fast enough. The Brigantia gave a shudder as something exploded port and aft, and the enormous hum of the main engines died away to nothing.

They were drifting, at speed, but still drifting. They were, in effect, a sitting duck.

Herosian Flagship.

‘We have them,’ Sin’Doffis hissed. His reservations regarding the retreat of the Old Earth forces were gone in the enthusiasm of the moment. ‘Tell the Captain to target that battleship ahead of us. Clear that out and there’s nothing to stop us bringing the main gun to bear on the city.’

‘Aye, sir,’ his assistant said just as five of the dots marking their rear guard went red.

Neither man immediately noticed the loss. It was not until three more ships had gone dead that Sin’Doffis became aware of the attack and the ships causing the damage. The signatures were small, barely recognisable, and the vessels were manoeuvring so fast they could have been fighters, but they clearly had far more firepower. Just as his mind was catching up with the sudden opening of their rear defences, he noticed the far larger blips on the screens moving in at incredible speed.

‘Aft! We’re under attack! The Old Earth…’

He was cut off by the sound of screaming metal as the Helios’ one terrajoule graser carved into the rear of the battleship.

FNb Admiral Banfry.

‘The Herosians have noticed they are getting their ass-end kicked to pulp,’ Leeforth reported. ‘They’re turning toward the Old Earth ships. Looks like Norden was right.’

Ape allowed himself a second to feel relief. His grand old ship was feeling distinctly creaky around him. There was nothing, so far, that was endangering the crew, but they were down to backup sensors, they could not have gone to warp if they had wanted to, and there was a hull breach leaking highly explosive fuel out of one of the tanks. That was making them significantly less manoeuvrable than he would have liked.

‘Target their battleships,’ he ordered.

‘Looks like that Xinti one is more or less dead anyway. The Helios ripped its drives out.’

‘Pick another one. I’ll let you choose.’

‘Thank you, Captain. I think I’ll pick…’ Leeforth tapped her console and then stabbed at a virtual button. ‘That one hasn’t got as nice a colour scheme,’ she said.

As far as Ape knew, all the Herosian ships had the same paint job, but he was not going to argue with her.

BC-101 Hand of God.

Tasker’s orders snapped out across the internal network and the powerful cruiser twisted port and up. They had come in flanking the Helios and now the formation broke, swinging in all directions so that they could brake safely before swinging about to press the attack. She was aware of every other vessel in the fleet, from the stealth frigates which had led the way and broken open the rear defences, to the vast bulk of the Helios which had just ripped the rear of the old Xinti battleship open.

Requests flowed back to her from gunnery and one of her pilots. They wanted a target to aim for as they swung the ship around for the second pilot to begin the braking manoeuvre, and she scanned her plan of the battle briefly before selecting a battleship she could see the Admiral Banfry firing upon. The combined effect would likely be better than attacking from a single side. As soon as she had elected her target, the ship’s attitude began to change. Minds in unison, working toward a single, destructive goal.

FSA Submarine.

Elroy walked out of the office he had been assigned and stood beside Truelove at the battle displays. He was no strategist, but it seemed as though the tide of the conflict above them had turned, markedly.

‘Norden pulled off a risky strategy,’ Truelove commented, presumably for his benefit. ‘We were losing, badly. The Herosians have lost nearly a quarter of their remaining ships in barely twenty minutes. How are you holding up, Senator?’

‘I’ll be happier when we can find out about the damage to the city,’ he replied. ‘Communications with the Representatives are all down. Do we have any estimates of casualties?’

‘The military forces have been wiped out, more or less. The spaceport’s gone. I doubt the island is there. The university has probably taken extensive damage along with most of the rest of the Islands. There are bound to be some casualties on the mainland, but they haven’t directly attacked the city yet. Hopefully they’re minimal, but some of the buildings, especially along the coast, may have structural damage.’

‘Perhaps we should consider rebuilding lower,’ Elroy growled.

‘There’s plenty of space.’

Elroy sighed. ‘The Marines are a total loss?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

Heaving another sigh, the Senator turned back to his office. ‘I’m going to work out what to say when this is over. I’ll be moping in the office if I’m needed.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

It felt as though they had been making love for hours. Maybe they had been; Katelyn had lost all sense of time in this dark place. Everything was concentrated between her legs now, nothing else mattered to her.

She had seen lights earlier, in one of the brief moments when she had opened her eyes. Someone had a torch of some sort and was moving between the people in the station. She had heard someone say that the spaceport had been attacked, and she had closed her eyes and sunk herself into the sensation welling up within her, making her feel warm, and wanted, and loved…

Now she felt his muscles tightening. She felt him swelling as he neared climax. The world began to shake and Dillon exploded within her, driving her over the edge once more. She screamed, but her scream was lost among other sounds: other screams, a deep rumble. Dillon moved suddenly, pushing himself up and over her.

‘I love you,’ he whispered before the roaring sound grew too loud and turned into a crashing noise. He grunted, held for a second, and then he was being pressed into her back as a section of the roof collapsed around them.

FNf Delta Brigantia.

‘Damage report,’ Anderson said, her voice carrying the weariness she felt more than she would have liked.

‘We’ve lost all but one of the forward turrets,’ Scotts’ voice replied, sounding as though he was speaking over an old analogue radio. ‘The main gun is functional, I think. We’ve got a hull breach in the midsection. I’m… not sure of the status of the people in there. I’ve managed to get one of the engines working, but containment on the fuel tanks is… shaky.’

Anderson looked around at the display on her globe. There were fuzzy patches on it where the sensor array had taken damage, but one thing stood out. Ahead of them, a few thousand klicks away, there was a gunship, and it was firing on the city. It looked like their targeting systems were not much better off than the Brigantia’s; they were hitting water as much as land.

‘We need to take that gunship out,’ she said.

‘Targeting is screwed,’ Hughes said. ‘We’ll need to practically ram it to get a solid hit, and I doubt that’ll take it out right now.’

‘All right…’ Anderson tapped the intercom button. ‘All hands, this is the Captain. Everyone to the escape pods. That is an order.’ She cut the intercom. ‘Prentice, reroute helm to me. All of you, get out of here.’

‘Are you planning what I think you’re planning, Captain?’ Hughes asked.

‘I said, get out of here. I was not making a request.’

Prentice’s hands wrapped around the control sticks on her flight chair. ‘Sorry, ma’am, but I’m going to have to ignore that order.’

‘And we’ll stand more chance of taking it out if we hit it with the main beam on the way in,’ Hughes added.

‘And if I stop adjusting the sensors for that long you’ll never hit the thing anyway,’ Baron said.

Scotts’ voice cut in at that moment. ‘We’re losing containment on the antimatter pods. I’m going to stay here and try to adjust them as best I can. Give you all a chance to get clear.’

Anderson swallowed hard. ‘We’re not going. We’ve one last target to take out.’

‘Then you’d better make use of that engine, Captain.’

‘Shari, you heard the man.’

Prentice rammed the throttle forward and the ship shook as though it might fly apart there and then. ‘It’s been a pleasure serving with you, Captain,’ the pilot said.

‘Best crew in the Navy,’ Anderson replied. ‘It’s been an honour to be your captain. Now let’s give those bastards something to think about.’

She watched as the hull of the gunship closed at an ever gathering pace.

Herosian Flagship.

How had things turned so suddenly against them? Sin’Doffis checked the data once again and came to the same conclusion. He had lost almost a third of his fleet in the last hour and while the Jenlay were badly hurt, suddenly the numbers were against him.

He could run. He could order a retreat, leave the system with what was left and come back later to try again. Except that the ship he was on had lost its warp drive. He could try to get to another ship, but his chances were slim. He would not be returning. Another Admiral would be put in charge of gaining victory over the Jenlay and his family name would be tarnished for centuries, if it lasted that long.

No. ‘I want a full force attack,’ he snapped to his assistant. ‘Throw everything we have at them. I want them reduced to ashes. Blast their damn city to rubble!’

LV-101 Argus.

Norden took note of the name of the ship which had taken down the last of the gunships. He would be sure to recommend the crew for whatever awards the Jenlay had for bravery. That sacrifice would not go unnoticed.

He also noted that the Herosian ships had turned to what he considered a ‘desperate, last ditch attempt’ to pull victory out of the situation. They were attacking, but with no overall strategy. He did not allow himself to smile yet; the numbers were too even and a vicious attack with everything they had might just work if he allowed it to.

Calmly, the strategist directed his ships as he would have counters in the game of Go he enjoyed playing when he got the chance. Calm, precise, keeping his eyes on both the detail and the overall flow of the battle. Chaos was the worst thing that could happen in a situation like this. His counterpart in the attacking fleet had succumbed to it, and Norden was not going to allow his own forces to fall victim.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

Henderson pulled at slabs of Plascrete, her strength enhanced by the motors in her combat suit. She had taken a little extra time to find one with an exoskeleton system because she thought it might be useful, and it was proving to have been a good decision.

The infrared overlay on her visor was telling her that there were bodies under the rubble. They were lucky that there had been only a couple of impacts and only a relatively small section of the tunnel had collapsed, but that still left more than a few potential corpses to find, all the while hoping that someone would be alive.

So far there had been little luck, but as she got closer to the wall she was hoping that she might pull someone out alive. The blocks here were bigger, heavier, but they might well have fallen with less impact.

Grabbing an aggregate boulder, she pulled, muscles and motors screaming at the stress, and then it came free and she found herself looking at two pairs of eyes. They were eyes that still had life in them, but they were pinned under a section of fallen masonry. She examined the block.

‘I can take the weight off,’ she said, her voice sounding tinny through the suit’s speaker. ‘Do you think you can crawl out if I do that?’

Dillon looked back at her. ‘Get her out,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I’m… I can’t feel my legs.’

BC-101 Hand of God.

There was silence on the bridge of the Hand of God, unless you could hear the internal network. Within the digital space, orders were being given at a rapid pace, gunners were coordinating their strikes, two pilots were working together to direct the ship’s motion and attitude as targets were selected and fired upon.

Tasker knew that it was the same on all the other ships in the fleet. She was busy coordinating their efforts with the others in her squadron, but as she watched space swing around her to bring the main beam to bear on another Herosian ship, she was the first to recognise how the flow of battle had changed.

Her report went out to the Argus in an instant. ‘They’re trying to pull out. They’re routing.’

FNb Admiral Banfry.

‘Report through from the Argus, Captain,’ Leeforth said and there was a hint of pleasure in her tone. ‘The Herosians are making efforts to escape.’

‘What’s the order on letting them?’ Ape replied.

‘Norden suggests we mop up anything in the near area. The Old Earth ships will chase them out to three AUs.’

Ape nodded. ‘What’s the status of that Xinti battleship?’

‘Severe damage. Engines are offline. They still have at least some weaponry functional.’

‘Get me an attack vector.’

Herosian Flagship.

Sin’Doffis watched his fleet crumbling around him and saw the first of the ships begin to run for clear enough space to initiate warp. He thought of attempting to rally them, but knew that his fellow Herosians were not the sort to give their lives for a lost cause.

‘We have two battleships on attack vector,’ his assistant stated in a tone which suggested acceptance of fate. ‘One of the Jenlay ships and the Old Earth one.’

The Herosian Admiral nodded. ‘We see our end with honour,’ he said. ‘It’s a shame no one is going to care.’

Norden Forest.

Winter closed down the displays in the ship and sat back in her seat, closing her eyes.

‘It’s over?’ Janna asked, just to be sure.

‘Near total loss for the Herosians,’ Winter said. ‘A couple of their ships made it to warp. They’ll likely get home to report that their fleet was destroyed. Knowing the Herosians, their reception will not be a nice one. Their families will be disowned; they’ll find it next to impossible to find mates. Whoever their leader was, his family will get worse.’

‘But it’s a war. They can’t expect everything to go their way.’ There was a pause and then Janna added, ‘Okay, yes, Herosians. That’s horrible.’

‘The Xinti should never have uplifted them in the first place. If I were to be optimistic, I might suggest that this would be good for them. They might learn that they can’t get everything they want through backstabbing and force. Unfortunately, I’m not that optimistic.’

‘You think they’ll keep trying?’

‘I think that this is all down to Aneka and Ella.’ She realised she had slipped as soon as she said it. One of the downsides to an organic avatar was that they got tired and made mistakes, but she had said it now and there was no going back.

‘Aneka and Ella? You said they were safe. What have you got them doing?!’

Part Seven: Summer Without Sun

Gwy, 25.1.530 FSC.

Ella circled slowly, her eyes on Aneka as they moved across the mats in the second cabin. It was afternoon, and that meant unarmed combat practice. It was unarmed combat practice, and that meant bruises. Ella had come to enjoy the bruises; bruises meant that Aneka would massage in a regenerative cream the AIs had supplied, and Aneka had got very good at turning the massage into something very teasing. Ella knew that her lover did it so that she would not start hating the training, but since she knew she had to keep the training up, no matter what, Ella was happy for anything which kept her from wanting to drop it.

‘The Herosians will have attacked New Earth by now,’ Ella said. It was said in a conversational tone. At first she had fretted over the fact that they would be unable to stop the attack, but all the training had driven that from her mind. It was a fact, and she had dealt with it, and she had other things to worry about. Still… ‘It’s annoying that we won’t know what happened until we get back.’

Aneka darted forward, moving from an upright stance to a grappling one in a fraction of a second. Ella twisted aside and threw out a block to stop the snapped punch Aneka threw when she knew the grapple would not work.

‘They will and it is,’ Aneka said. She was smiling a little, pleased at her student’s nimbleness. ‘You are getting quite good at this.’

‘Thank you.’ Ella darted forward, throwing a feint to the left before shifting direction and moving in for a body slam and leg sweep combination. Aneka ignored the feint, let Ella get in close, set her weight on the leg Ella was trying to sweep, and pushed.

‘Oof!’ Ella grunted as she landed on her back with enough force to knock the air out of her lungs.

‘You’re not that good,’ Aneka added, holding out a hand to help the redhead up.

Ella groaned as she was pulled upright. She did not have the padding to land on her ass that hard. Still, at least there would be bruises.

Shadataga.

With a sigh, Gillian got to her feet and walked away from the terminal she had been using, out through the lounge of the apartment, and found her way to the garden which occupied a space between two accommodation blocks.

Abby was there, lying in the sun, though Gillian knew she was not simply relaxing. The girl’s eyes were shut, but up close you could see the shifting which indicated she was likely reading something behind her eyelids. In spare moments, Gillian had considered getting the AIs to put a computer implant in for her; it certainly seemed useful and she knew that it was just her upbringing that was keeping her from that utility.

With Aneka and Ella on their way, the team had fallen into old habits. They were learning or keeping useful in some other way. Abraham had gone off with Reality, the physical sciences AI to continue his studies into the higher-level physics the AIs had discovered. Cassandra was studying the AIs themselves. Gillian was going over historical records she had not had time to examine before.

The facilitators, Bash, David, and Delta, had taken a transport and gone off to explore areas of the planet the AIs had paid little attention to. Gillian spoke to her son and her partner every evening, receiving reports on the geology and biology they were uncovering. The geological aspect was interesting the AIs who were a little concerned about the stability of the planet they had selected and wanted to know more. Reality was supervising a number of subordinate AIs who dealt heavily with planetary physics, tectonics, and geology as they analysed the data being collected and considered plans to stabilise the crust or reduce the impact of its movement.

Drake and Shannon were out with Aggy surveying the other planets in the system. They had sent back some glorious pictures of the beautiful ring system the largest of the four gas giants boasted. It was right on the edge of the system, and you had to get lucky to catch the light just right, but when you did the result was most impressive.

‘Everything okay, Doctor?’ Abby’s voice interrupted Gillian’s thoughts and she turned to look at the young Earth woman, smiling slightly.

‘Fine. I just needed a break from the screens.’

‘It does get to you after a while. Even doing it this way your brain goes mushy eventually. I’ve been reading over the reports from New Earth.’

Reports had been coming in for about a day on the outcome of the battle. At first there had been relief; the Herosians had failed, the system was safe. Then the extent of the damage had become clear, the loss of life, the injuries. As far as they knew, pretty much everyone they knew was safe, though their homes were not. Mid-town had taken extensive damage. Gillian had sent a message suggesting that anyone who wanted to could use her house out on the western edge of the city which had been left untouched.

‘Anything new?’ Gillian asked.

Abby’s face straightened. ‘One piece of bad news. Dillon Zacks? Ella’s neighbour? He was injured, spinal damage. His partner is okay, but he’s been transferred up to the Argus to see what we can do for him.’

Gillian swallowed. Spinal injuries were difficult to fix. Nerve regeneration rarely worked on them and if there was skeletal trauma too… Dillon was an active sort of man. He would not take well to being restricted by injury.

LV-101 Argus.

Katelyn looked up at her lover as he hung in a suspension field, his body encased in what amounted to a full-body splint of bioplastic. He was unconscious; it meant they did not need to keep pumping him full of drugs for the pain.

‘We have two possible courses of action,’ the man beside her was saying. He was a doctor, one of the ones from New Earth, and Katelyn was acutely aware that they were lucky to have the man working on Dillon’s injuries. There were a lot of hurt people on the planet, but for whatever reason it seemed that Dillon’s case had been given more priority than it perhaps deserved. Katelyn suspected that it was because they were friends of Aneka’s. She had certainly not mentioned it, but a team from the Argus had seen them at one of the triage centres, recognised them, and taken them in hand immediately.

Shaking her head to clear it, Katelyn gave the man a weak smile. ‘Two?’

He nodded. ‘Regeneration could give him back full function, but the spinal column is notoriously difficult to regenerate properly. There will be a requirement for considerable physical therapy, and his back may always have some loss of stability.’

Katelyn swallowed. ‘In case his physique didn’t give it away, he likes to keep himself in shape. He would hate being unable to lift his weights.’

The doctor gave her a smile. ‘We had noticed that he seemed fond of exercise. All that muscle likely saved you, and probably resulted in less severe injuries to him. His back is very well supported.’

‘You said there was another way?’

‘I hesitate to mention it since I understand that Jenlay are… resistant to cybernetic implants. We can replace his spine, probably the rib cage as well. Splice in nanofibre nerve replacements. It would be quite extensive surgery and there would be some requirement for therapy afterward, but he would have full function and once the muscles have properly knitted to the new framework he probably wouldn’t notice a difference, but… Well, he would be a cyborg, if a limited one.’

Katelyn looked back at the man hanging in the air beyond a Polyglass screen. ‘He’s from the Rim. He’s never been bothered about robots or cyborgs. He’d be more worried about what I’d think. I’m the one with the irrational prejudice.’

‘I see. Obviously, we need to ask him, but if you think the cyborg operation would cause problems…’

‘No. That man is everything to me. If he thinks he couldn’t stand the operation then he’ll have to learn to live with not lifting weights. I’d love him if you had to replace his entire body. You offer him both options.’ She laughed. ‘I’ve spent enough time around Aneka to know it’s not what you are that counts, it’s who you are.’

‘A commendable attitude,’ the doctor said, ‘and one I hope your fellow Jenlay will embrace. I’m afraid your partner is far from the only victim of that battle where replacing body parts is the best course of action.’

Tristar Township.

‘You know,’ Sharissa said, her voice soft, ‘Janine is not to blame for this.’

Janna glowered at her for a second and then relented with a sigh. ‘I know. It’s just…’

‘She’s an aspect of Winter and you’re angry. Yes, but it’s not really Winter’s fault either. Ella volunteered. From what Janine said, she insisted.’

‘Yes, but…’

‘And you know why too. She wouldn’t allow Aneka to go alone.’

‘I know that, but…’

‘And you know that Aneka couldn’t say no, because that’s the way she’s wired, if you’ll pardon the expression. And Aneka will do everything in her power to keep Ella safe as well.’

‘I’m not going to apologise for not liking the fact that my daughter is in danger!’ Janna snapped.

‘No one’s asking you to, love. However, this constant fuming about it is just raising your blood pressure, making Janine uncomfortable, and not helping anyone else’s stress.’

They were in Gillian’s back yard, standing beside the low wall at the edge of the property. Janna’s gaze fixed on the horizon and she drew in a deep lungful of air, letting it out slowly. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, and very flat, as though she were forcing the emotion from it.

‘When Ella was taken ill… When it became clear they couldn’t really help her on Harriamon anyway, I knew the only way I could help her was to bring her here.’

‘I know you had to work hard…’

‘I did whatever I needed to to get the money. I’ve never told her. She knows it was hard, of course, and she suspects… I did overtime at the club, slept with anyone who would pay me, did whatever they asked. I made films. Not the kind you see in the core, the specialist ones. There were times I was glad she couldn’t see the state I was in, but even she could tell I was hurt on occasion.’

Sharissa swallowed. She knew the kind of thing Janna was talking about. Jenlay did not classify films with sex in as porn, but the word did have a meaning, generally qualified by type. The urge to find the distributers and producers and murder them in messy ways surfaced and was pushed aside.

‘I would literally do anything for Ella,’ Janna went on. ‘I’ve done everything except die for her. Now…’ the brunette turned, blinking back tears. ‘There’s nothing I can do. I feel so helpless.’

Sharissa nodded, reached out, and pulled Janna to her. ‘Ella’s got two people she would do anything for, love. She’s with one to keep her safe, and she’s doing it to keep you safe.’

Janna gave a little nod. ‘I’ll apologise to Janine. And Winter.’

‘I don’t think either of them wants an apology. Just go back to being Janna. They’ll know they’re forgiven.’

‘You don’t mind if I worry though, I hope?’

Sharissa gave a soft laugh. ‘Everyone else is. It’d be hypocritical to ask you not to.’

Gwy, 28.1.530 FSC.

‘Two fighters,’ Gwy stated in Ella’s ear. ‘Port side rear. Closing at one thousand and sixty-two metres per second.’

Ella twisted the ship to starboard, rolling at the same time. ‘Weapons?’

‘My electronic warfare suite is reducing the effectiveness of their targeting systems. Their armament is unlikely to penetrate my force shielding. However, I am detecting an incoming cruiser-sized vessel and over thirty more fighters.’

‘Gopi,’ Ella muttered. A thought directed the lateral turrets to engage the two smaller craft and she twisted the ship around more weapons fire in an attempt to save the shields for anything else which might come their way.

In truth, she wanted to put her foot down hard and run for it, but she had to hold her position until Aneka could leave the nearby asteroid and get back to Gwy. Her orders were to hold for another sixteen minutes and then assume Aneka was dead. Well, she was simply not considering the possibility, but she was certainly going to hold on for another sixteen minutes.

‘Fighter’s disabled,’ Gwy announced, her tone calm.

Ella slammed the ship into a tight turn, swinging it under the asteroid. ‘Stealth systems?’

‘Repairs complete.’

‘Engage them…’ She pulled the ship up, putting the huge rock between her and the oncoming ships. ‘Now!’

‘Stealth field engaged,’ Gwy replied. ‘Multiple missile launches detected from the asteroid.’

Ella saw the flares of engines. It looked like the entire surface of the thing was coming out to meet her. They could not see her, but they had to know where she was. They would detonate in a wide spread and hope it was close enough. If she could just…

But she was too close. The explosions jerked Gwy hard to starboard, rippling across the space under her belly. Indicators floating in front of Ella showed systems going offline as the force field and hull were breached. There was no way she was getting out of this one…

And the flight environment dissolved around her to reveal Aneka standing at the front of the small room, grinning broadly.

‘You got me,’ Ella growled, ‘you don’t have to look so happy about it.’

‘Actually,’ Aneka said, still beaming, ‘I’m happy because it took a missile broadside to take you out. What was that? Two frigates, seven fighters, and that was after I cheated and had your cloaking shield malfunction.’

‘You performed admirably, Ella,’ Gwy said, appearing beside Aneka, ‘and I have a better feel for the interaction between your implant and my systems. I believe we make an effective team.’

Sitting up, Ella reached behind her neck and disengaged the cable that was connecting her to the ship. ‘If I’d given the asteroid a wider berth…’

‘You could have probably dodged the explosions,’ Aneka finished, nodding. ‘I doubt our target has that kind of firepower anyway. It’s a command station in a system they don’t expect to see anyone entering.’

‘Then why hit me with it?’

‘Because it’s a simulation and you might as well train for the worst while it isn’t going to kill you.’

‘It sure feels real enough,’ Ella replied. ‘I think I could feel the heat from the detonations.’

‘That is just your imagination,’ Aneka told her, grinning. ‘You did good, love, and if we do this right, you won’t even need to have done the training.’

Ella gave a sigh and got to her feet and started for the gravity lift. ‘Two more days.’

‘Until we get there,’ Aneka agreed, following. ‘Maybe another one or two for planning. Nervous?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. I’d be worried if you weren’t.’

29.1.530 FSC.

Aneka was listening to Herosian. It was an odd language, full of guttural noises and sibilants. The latter was kind of expected in the race that looked reptilian. She had always been a little disappointed that it did not really show up when they spoke Federal, but then the future refused to meet up with her expectations at times; the Delta Brigantia had an engineer named Scotts who did not have a Scottish accent.

‘Do you think you’ve got the hang of that?’ Ella asked from the bed.

A display of recognition data from her universal translation software appeared in-vision and Aneka flicked through it. ‘I’m not quite up to native comprehension.’

‘Do you need to be? Hours of self-teach Herosian language lessons is less fun than hours of actual language lessons.’

Aneka grinned. She had been listening to the recordings for most of the trip, on and off. She checked the readout again; she was going to be able to understand everything but the most complex or scientific conversations she heard. Good enough.

‘Okay, get your pads on and I’ll beat you up some more.’

Ella grinned and scrabbled to comply. ‘Massage after, right?’

‘I’ll even use the scented oil.’

Shadataga, 30.1.530 FSC.

‘Second thoughts, sister?’

Winter turned from the galaxy display to see War and Evolution standing behind her. It was the former who had spoken and Winter took it as a sign of their own disquiet that the AIs were expressing themselves vocally rather than simply exchanging messages. She doubted they had grown as used to physical form as she had over the last thousand years.

Turning back to the display she said, ‘No. I have no second thoughts on the matter. That does not stop me allocating runtime to the possibility that I have sent two women I consider friends to their deaths.’

‘We have given them every advantage,’ Evolution replied, stepping closer and looking up toward the spot Winter was watching. Up there among the cloud of simulated stars, a trail showed the expected path of Gwy. It was very close to its destination now. ‘Aneka is very capable. A few Herosians will present her with little challenge.’

‘It’s not them I’m worried about. I suspect War understands.’

‘It’s what we don’t know about,’ War responded. ‘We have accounted for everything we can envisage happening, but Aneka has to deal with what we have not considered.’

Evolution nodded, but did not seem overly troubled. ‘Agreed, but is that not why we requested that Aneka do this? We could have sent an automated probe if we knew exactly what we were dealing with. I have every confidence in our team.’

‘I’ve spent too much time among the Jenlay,’ Winter replied, smiling bleakly. ‘I can’t discover a reason for my disquiet, but I can’t eliminate it either. They refer to the feeling as a “hunch.” Somehow I feel this is not going to be as easy as we currently think it will be.’

‘This kind of enterprise rarely is,’ War replied.

Gwy, 1.2.530 FSC.

‘So that’s Herosia,’ Aneka said.

‘What’s left of it,’ Ella replied. She was working at a desk which had formed itself in the second cabin for her to use as a console. Gwy was arranging for them to both see the sensor data they were getting as a three-dimensional projection in the air of the room. ‘There were seven planets and three asteroid belts here the last time anyone saw it. No gas giants.’

Now the system had ten asteroid belts. Some were denser than others, but Aneka could not tell which of them had once been spheres. The Xinti had blasted every world in the system into rubble. Not just the Herosian home world, all of them.

‘They were really pissed when they got here, weren’t they?’ Aneka commented.

‘Right at this moment, I can’t say I blame them.’ The redhead’s fingers moved over the keyboard, but she was frowning. ‘I think I’m getting some concentrations of refined materials which could be artificial satellites, but we need to get closer.’

Aneka nodded, her attention shifting to the flight data she was seeing in a separate display. They were ten light-minutes outside the system’s outer edge. She had dropped them out of warp there because even with the stealth field engaged exiting within the system was likely to get them noticed. She ran the calculations.

‘We’re about seven hours from that outer belt at full acceleration.’

Ella was busy with her own estimates. ‘We’ll let the sensors run on for four and then see what we have. That gives us three to make final plans for entry. If we had a science sensor package instead of tactical, we could probably know something sooner…’

‘I will mention that to War when we return to Shadataga,’ Gwy said from the room’s speakers. ‘A multi-function system could be installed.’

Ella gave the room a grin. ‘I’m hoping we won’t need to sneak into heavily defended solar systems again, personally.’

‘Indeed,’ the AI replied, ‘but it would be nice to feel useful for other purposes when we are done here.’

‘You will be,’ Aneka told her. ‘Let’s go lie down. That acceleration isn’t huge, but it’s going to be annoying after a few hours.’

Nodding, Ella got to her feet and then had to brace herself against the desk to keep steady. ‘Wow. I’ve never felt that much force through an inertial compensator. You have really powerful engines, Gwy.’

‘Thank you, Ella,’ the AI responded, sounding pleased. ‘For my size I do have quite some push. The apparent acceleration is around half of one standard gravity. I hope it does not cause too much discomfort.’

‘Discomfort, no,’ Aneka said, ‘but trying to do anything active while vertical is going to be difficult.’

‘Then we’d better find something active to do while we’re horizontal,’ Ella replied, smiling sweetly.

~~~

‘We have been monitoring the sensor readings,’ Al said as the model of the Herosia system appeared above the bed. ‘As Ella indicated, there is evidence of artificial objects in the system.’

Aneka and Ella watched as several clumps of one of the asteroid belts lit up to indicate the regions Al was referring to. There were three of them, one significantly larger than the others, situated in a belt about nine-and-a-half AUs from the system’s star.

‘At this range,’ Gwy added, ‘the detail is light, but we have identified at least one battleship in the larger cluster. Matching our data to the data from the probe, we are confident that the situation here has not changed drastically since our last recorded mapping.’

‘And the asteroid we’re aiming for?’ Aneka asked.

‘Is, unfortunately, part of the larger cluster.’

‘Right.’ Aneka checked her flight data. They had turned to decelerate for the outer edge of the system, but that was going to put them over ten AUs from their eventual destination. ‘Change course. Take us above the plane of the system, aim for an AU above that cluster in a matched orbit.’

Almost immediately there was a shift in the acceleration as Gwy cut back her engines, turned the ship around, and began accelerating again.

Ella sighed. ‘More time on my back,’ she said.

Aneka giggled. ‘You’ve never complained about that before.’

‘Yeah… But I want to get this over with. We’re so close now…’

Aneka nodded. ‘This is when the tension starts getting to you.’ She glanced at her partner. ‘Surely that orbit can’t be where Herosia was?’

Ella looked up at the display. ‘No. It was the fourth of those belts, about one-point-one AUs out. They must actually be viewing it as a sort of war grave or memorial. I mean, they’d be in space anyway, but the closer orbit would let them use more solar power and they’d get some natural light. Maybe they aren’t quite as crass as we thought.’

‘Everyone has their limits. Didn’t Gillian want you to run scans if you had time?’

‘You’re trying to keep me busy.’

‘Uh-huh. Just for a bit. Then we’ll do something else to keep busy, and then we’ll have a shower, and then we’ll be in a position to make a tactical plan.’

Ella sighed. ‘Okay… Gwy, would you give me the data you’ve collected so far and keep it coming? Let’s see if there’s anything interesting out there.’

~~~

‘There’s definitely evidence of the final battle,’ Ella said as she highlighted various regions of the system via her implant. ‘These are debris fields. They’re what’s left of the ships destroyed in the fighting.’

‘They look pretty thin,’ Aneka commented.

‘They are. I think they’ve been farming them for materials for centuries. The thinnest patches are also the ones which contain the most exotic matter forms.’

‘The Herosians have been grabbing whatever materials they could from Xinti debris.’

‘Uh-huh. I’d say that explains the lousy quality of their frigate hulls.’

‘I concur,’ Al agreed.

‘Recycling the collapsed matter used in hulls like mine,’ Gwy put in, ‘requires very fine gravity manipulation technology. Even the Xinti found it difficult a thousand years ago. Where hull repairs were required, they would generally replace the section rather than attempting to seal it.’

‘It’s weird though,’ Ella went on. ‘I mean, this lot are trying to recycle it, which implies they have trouble making it at all. There’s a very large construction facility…’ She highlighted one of the areas they had identified earlier. ‘It’s got a lot of heavy equipment. Huge power systems. The sensors are registering anomalous gravity readings, big ones.’

‘Substituting brute force for fine control?’ Aneka suggested.

‘Possibly. But where did they even learn to do that? If they’d found a Xinti construction site surely they’d have better techniques. And there’s the lack of reactionless drives. It’s all… a bit weird.’

Aneka grinned. ‘Is that a technical term?’

Ella smirked. ‘The observed technology exhibits anomalous development patterns.’

‘You mean it’s a bit weird?’

‘Yeah. It’s like someone really clever has been reverse engineering Xinti tech for a millennium. They’ve got some of it right, but they aren’t entirely sure what they’re doing.’

‘Herosians aren’t exactly long-lived,’ Aneka said.

‘And they aren’t noted for their genius-level intelligence either,’ Ella agreed. ‘I think there’s something going on here we don’t know about.’

‘Huh… What about gaining entry to the asteroid?’

‘I have detected fairly regular shuttle traffic between it and the other stations in that area,’ Gwy said. ‘I believe your best course of action would be to hitch a ride on one of those. With Ella piloting, I believe we can move in undetected, drop you off on a shuttle, and you can ride it into the hangar bay.’

‘It sounds like the best way in without tripping any alarms,’ Aneka agreed. ‘Think you’re up for it, love?’

‘I think so. Maybe we could run some simulations. How long before we’re in position?’

‘It will be early tomorrow before we arrive at the designated target location,’ Gwy supplied.

Ella sighed. ‘Being able to warp into a system is really much more convenient, isn’t it? At least we’ll have time for some practice.’

2.2.530 FSC.

Ella’s lips formed a thin line as she guided Gwy toward one of the Herosian shuttles. It had a thirty-minute flight time and it had been flying for seven minutes, but her main concern was that Aneka was currently clinging to the outside of the ship without an air supply.

Not, she reminded herself, that Aneka needed an external air supply the way she did. Somewhere in Aneka’s chassis her body stored oxygen which her semi-organic components used when she could not breathe. Thinking about it, no one had ever explained where the oxygen was actually stored. Ella had this theory: there had to be a reason aside from aesthetics for that increase in cup size…

In front of Ella the virtual display highlighted the shuttle. Light out here was not exactly bright, but the ship’s sensors were making the most of it. Besides, the thermal signature from the fusion engines was bright enough, even when they were not burning, to make the small vessel easily detectable.

Along with the highlighted visuals, Gwy was displaying the current projected flight path. Ella lifted the nose slightly, raising the line of glowing rectangles which showed where she was going.

‘We will pass a little more than ten metres from the upper hull of the shuttle at this trajectory,’ Gwy stated.

‘That’s close enough,’ Aneka said, her voice relayed in through Ella’s connection to the ship. ‘Probably a little too close.’

‘You make the jump and I’ll pull away,’ Ella replied firmly. She was not going to take risks with Aneka’s life at this stage. If the shuttle detected her, and she was pretty sure it would not, at least Gwy had a good chance of getting clear. If Aneka missed the jump then getting her back was going to be a lot harder. ‘Range, Gwy?’

‘Seven hundred metres,’ the AI replied. ‘We are closing at fifty-eight metres per second.’

‘Twelve seconds, sheelee,’ Ella said. ‘You be careful. Make contact once you’re inside.’

‘No problem, love. I’m wearing the ultimate in Xinti adaptive camouflage, remember. I’ll be fine.’

‘You’d better be. If you get yourself killed I’ll murder you. And you know I don’t react well to having to kill people.’

‘Just make sure I’ve got you and Gwy to come back to, okay? I don’t want to have to float back home.’

Ella watched the flight path display vanish in front of her as the distance closed and applied some braking thrust to slow Gwy’s closing speed.

‘Five seconds,’ Gwy announced. ‘Relative velocity twenty-three metres per second… fifteen… Go now, Aneka.’

‘Love you, Ella,’ Aneka said, and then the connection was cut.

Ella bit her lip, counted to ten, and then pushed up and away from the shuttle. With a hundred metres between the two ships she pulled the nose up and put more power into the reactionless drive, accelerating out of the cluster of stations which formed the military complex Aneka was infiltrating.

‘Aneka has successfully attached herself to the outer hull of the shuttle,’ Gwy told her.

‘All right. Give me a flight plan to our holding position and then get the comms system lined up.’ Immediately another set of guide rectangles appeared ahead of her and Ella adjusted the ship’s attitude to follow them.

‘Your heart rate and breathing are elevated, Ella,’ Gwy told her. ‘I understand your anxiety, but you should try to remain calm. Aneka is very good at this kind of operation. She will succeed.’

‘It’s not quite that easy for us organics, Gwy. When someone we have feelings for is in danger, we tend to get anxious.’

‘Don’t worry. I am quite sure that you will soon be making all those strange noises in my cabin again.’

‘I hope so,’ Ella said, her voice soft. ‘I really hope so.’

~~~

Aneka lay with her body pressed as close to the hull of the shuttle as she could manage, holding on via a device which gripped the smooth metal using molecular bonding. She was pretty sure it would hold onto the ship; her only worry was that she might fail to hold onto it, but the little craft she was riding was incapable of sharp acceleration so she was probably safe.

‘Do we have an estimate on flight time?’ she asked silently.

‘An estimate, yes,’ Al replied. ‘Based on the distance we had left to travel and the time we have been here, I estimate another five minutes before we reach the hangar bay.’

‘Right.’ It felt like she had been there for an hour, but it was more like fifteen minutes. She looked up and could see little aside from the lights on the shuttle. The asteroid was dark; composed of matte black rock which reflected little in the way of light. But there was something out there blocking her view of the stars. Something almost two hundred metres in length, massing a hundred thousand tonnes or so. She lowered her face back to the metal.

They knew too little about the interior of the asteroid. It had some fairly extensive communication systems and the sensors on the probe suggested that there was a heavy layer of exotic matter hidden away under the rocky exterior. There was evidence of weaponry; extended observation had shown what appeared to be beam weapon turrets, but no sign of any missile launchers of the type Aneka had programmed into her simulation. The hangar bay was at one end of the slightly irregular, lozenge-shaped object. Aside from that, however, the interior was a mystery.

In preparation for that mystery, Aneka was going in loaded for bear. A camouflaged pack on her back contained her two machine pistols, ten implosion mines, a rather special communicator, and a specialised computer which was going to deliver the virus into the asteroid’s communications system. Hopefully that was going to be enough. The difficult bit was going to be figuring out where she needed to be to use any of it.

‘I’m picking up traffic between the shuttle and the asteroid,’ Al informed her. ‘Standard approach chatter, but there is one interesting thing: the asteroid’s codename is apparently “Summer Retreat.”’

‘Kind of an odd name for an asteroid in a system without planets. Then again, someone could say, “I’m going to my summer retreat,” and no one would understand the reference.’

‘Given how hot most Herosian worlds are, a summer retreat would likely be somewhere a little cooler. We’ll be entering the bay in around a minute.’

Aneka looked up again in time to see a large section of the rocky hull opening outward. Two blocks of stone were hinging out on thick supports to reveal the dimly lit space beyond. There was one flashing navigation light visible and that seemed to be where the shuttle was headed. She could just about make out some structures: docking tubes, what looked like an observation deck with slightly brighter lighting showing through a window, and there were a couple of figures moving about.

The shuttle began reorienting itself as it passed through the doors. Aneka started moving across its hull, releasing and then reattaching the grapple to drag herself around toward the starboard side which seemed to be where the craft was going to dock. A glance back showed the doors closing behind them; there was no going back now, not that she planned to. Docking clamps reached out to lock the shuttle in place and a hard-walled tube began to extend from under the observation window. That was Aneka’s cue; she pushed off from the ship, gliding through empty space to land in the open end of the cylinder. There was a two-metre airlock section there which would be pressurised once a seal had been made, and that was her way in with minimal chance of detection. Still, a couple of minutes trapped in a couple of metres of airless tube felt like hours.

‘One-point-one-five atmospheres,’ Al said, ‘standard for a Herosian environment.’

As he said it, the inside door slid open and Aneka moved into the tube where she had more space to avoid anyone coming off the ship. She did not have to wait long either; a minute later a half-dozen Herosians walked off and straight past her as she stood against the wall.

‘This camouflage system is incredible,’ Aneka commented.

‘It helps that Herosians are arrogant enough to believe that no one could possibly find them here.’

‘Huh.’ Aneka fell into step behind the line, slipping through the door at the end of the tube and into a reception room where she came to a sudden stop at the sight waiting for her. The Herosians ignored it, filing past through a door on the left, but Aneka found herself unable to move.

Guarding the room was a robotic construct almost three metres in height. Everything from the digitigrade legs to the rather small, angular head. She had seen one of them before, in the museum in Yorkbridge. That one had been all polished metal and she had thought it looked kind of stupid, but this one, which was moving, still had a glossy feel to its blue-tinted armour. Maybe when the Xinti had gone to war they had not really cared about stealth. They did care about heavy armament; the thing was holding a massive, multi-barrelled rifle. But beyond the sheer physicality of it…

‘That’s not possible,’ Al said.

‘I think that’s my line,’ Aneka replied. ‘I’m supposed to say that and then you tell me it obviously is possible because it’s there.’

‘The Xinti are gone. And even if they still existed they would never be working with the Herosians.’

‘It does seem a little… No, actually it’s a lot out of character. I’ll accept “this doesn’t make sense.” Right now I need to make my legs move. How good are the senses on those things?’

‘Enhanced, wide-angle, multispectral vision, enhanced hearing, and a spherical lidar system. If you’re quiet, the suit’s camouflage should hide you, however.’

‘He’s going to notice when the door opens on its own.’

‘Not if the doors malfunction.’

The Xinti’s body tensed suddenly as all of the doors in the room slid open simultaneously. Aneka could tell the thing was on alert, which was not going to help, except that then the doors started closing and opening randomly, each making a hiss as it moved. Aneka slipped out in the direction the Herosians had gone, leaving a confused-looking Xinti behind her.

‘How can you tell it was confused?’ Al asked as she moved down the corridor.

‘Well… It was kind of… Just keep watch for any internal alert broadcasts, okay?’

‘I am picking up internal transmissions, but nothing indicating an alert. That guard has sent out a network message requesting a maintenance team. The networks are using Herosian military-grade encryption.’

‘Not Xinti?’

‘Not Xinti,’ Al confirmed.

Aneka spotted a door, tapped the button beside it, and found herself looking into what appeared to be a storage area. That would do. She slipped inside and closed the door behind her.

‘So we have a Xinti in a war body working with Herosians and using Herosian encryption to communicate?’ Aneka summed up.

The room was large enough that the crates in it did not take up too much of the space, despite there being a lot of them. Finding a place to hide for a few minutes while she prepared was not too hard. Slipping in behind a row of boxes, she took off her pack, deactivated her stealth systems, and got to work.

‘The situation appears rather more complex than we thought,’ Al agreed.

‘If you can listen in on their network, I don’t suppose you can hack it and get us a map?’ She took out her guns, putting them down on the deck where she could get at them easily, and then located the communicator.

‘That would require more transmission than I would like. We can no longer assume the staff here are unfamiliar with their technology, and we have to view them as… more competent than a typical Herosian. I would have been wary of such an attempt if all we were worried about was Herosian sensor operators.’

Aneka placed the cylindrical device on its end and activated it. ‘Well, we need a short-range link to this so I can talk to Ella and Gwy. As you said, this has got more complicated.’

‘Connection established. The unit is attempting to synchronise with Gwy.’

The gadget was a neutrino communicator, and it was another piece of ultra-high-tech magic. Aneka remembered her brother mentioning neutrinos; they were weird little particles which basically passed through everything. You could stand on a planet and have millions of the things fly through you every second and you would never know. Back then, detecting them required tonnes of industrial cleaning fluid in a deep mine. This thing could detect them through some interesting use of gravity and force field technology, which was useful since she would have had trouble lugging a salt mine around. The beam it produced was basically impossible to detect or intercept, but it was also point-to-point; right now the device was locating Gwy by dead reckoning combined with trial and error.

‘We have a link to Gwy,’ Al announced after another minute.

‘You made it.’ Ella’s voice, sounding relieved, came over the beam a second later.

‘I made it,’ Aneka replied. ‘I’m in a cargo hold near the hangar bay, but there’s a complication.’

‘What kind of complication?’

‘There was a guard in the reception room off the hangar. Ella, it was a Xinti war body. Just like the one in the museum, except less shiny.’

There was a pause, a long pause, and then, ‘Those things are basically robots. They could have captured some, replaced the Xinti brain with a normal computer…’

‘Yeah, but why? They are not very fond of the Xinti. Especially that form. There were probably more normal robots around they could use.’

‘Yes, but what I’m saying is that that thing doesn’t mean there are Xinti here.’

‘I agree with Ella,’ Gwy interjected. ‘This information indicates a necessity for additional caution, but of itself it does not indicate a Xinti presence.’

‘Well, we did think it was weird to see Xinti working with Herosians,’ Aneka replied. ‘I mean, that would be overcoming some major hate on both sides. Do we have any better data on my targets?’

‘Not really,’ Ella replied. ‘Everything I’ve come across is pointing the same way. Heat distribution suggests the primary power system is in the same area as you are now. All the communications emissions are coming out from the central section, so we still figure that’s where the main comms suite is located.’

‘I’m expecting you to find a high-end fusion reactor,’ Gwy said. ‘It is likely toward the core of the station, probably around twenty metres away toward the midsection.’

‘Okay,’ Aneka replied, ‘I’ll start there. I’ll get in touch again when I’ve loaded the virus.’

‘Be careful,’ Ella said. ‘Please.’

Aneka grinned, an act made a little difficult by her skintight suit of living metal. ‘I will be, love.’ She closed the connection and packed away the communicator, and then she checked one of the nearby crates since it was there.

‘Interesting,’ Al commented as Aneka looked at the contents.

‘Grenades,’ Aneka said and checked another crate, which contained rifles. ‘It’s a weapons store. Antimatter rifles?’

‘It would appear so. The small graphic on the grenades? That thing that looks like an atom in red, it’s the Federal radiation hazard symbol. They may be micro-nukes, or antimatter.’

Aneka slipped one of the mines out of her pack, primed it, and put it into the crate with the grenades. ‘Well if they’re nukes that probably won’t set them off, but if they’re antimatter…’

‘We won’t want to be here when the containment fails,’ Al finished for her.

Aneka grinned and got ready to go out. Her pistols went in camouflaged holsters strapped to her thighs. The all-around coverage would make it harder to get to them in a hurry, but it was better than having to get them from her pack. Then the pack went back onto her back and its stealth system was activated. With that done, she slipped back out of the hold and started down the corridor.

~~~

‘If there are Xinti aboard that station,’ Ella said, ‘what does that do to our probability of horrible death?’

Gwy appeared beside the flight chair, apparently hanging in space. ‘It would reduce our chance of success. I’m unsure what you would consider a horrible death, so I can’t evaluate that part of your query.’

‘I can’t really believe there are any. Not really. I mean, how could there be?’

Gwy managed to look thoughtful, despite having features composed entirely of obsidian. ‘The AIs in Negral, when they were still there, concluded that the chance of any Xinti surviving the war outside of that system was essentially nil. They have not revised that estimate.’

Ella looked out at the distant asteroid. ‘I could imagine one or two surviving, but not enough that they could have a guard standing around doing nothing. No… I think there’s something else going on.’ She frowned. ‘That doesn’t make me feel better.’

‘No,’ Gwy said, ‘me neither.’

~~~

‘This place is a ghost town.’

The corridors had been empty as they walked down them. There seemed to be no more guards about. Aneka had, in fact, seen no one for ten minutes.

‘There is a high level of automation on this station,’ Al replied. ‘Far more than one would expect on a Herosian facility.’

‘We’re getting that a lot lately. They’re obviously using Xinti tech to keep the crew requirements down, but why? Why bother? There are plenty of Herosians.’

‘Might I suggest that we don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?’

‘I’ve never met a gift horse with good teeth.’ Aneka stopped in front of the door she had found at the bottom of a ladder. ‘You said that atomic symbol meant “radiation hazard,” right?’

‘And the theory is that the reactor should be around about here. Radiation hazard would be a good thing.’

‘Not something you hear a lot. Can you hack the…?’

The door slid open and Al said, ‘It wasn’t locked. The security in this place is… Well, based on the assumption that no one can get in. Remind you of anything?’

Aneka slipped into the empty chamber. Empty aside from a huge, spherical fusion reactor anyway. ‘The Xinti tended to have weak internal security since they believed themselves superior, but that’s why I don’t think we’re dealing with Xinti here.’

‘I’m not following your logic,’ Al admitted.

Aneka took off her pack and fished a couple of mines out of it. ‘Where do we put these?’

‘I’d suggest the underside of the reactor containment vessel and that large pipe running along the floor on the far side. That should be one of the main power conduits.’

Setting off to place the mines, Aneka explained. ‘Xinti who survived the war should have learned from their mistakes. They might have been arrogant before they got their arses kicked, but they’re intelligent to the point of genius. They wouldn’t let themselves be caught in the same sort of trap. They would have improved on their own encryption systems, not be using Herosian ones. They would beef up their internal security, even if they thought it unlikely that anyone would find them.’ She paused to reach under the sphere to place a mine. ‘Frankly, I think they’d assume that someone would figure out they were based here and fortify it up to the eyeballs.’

‘Then what? Surely the Herosians would learn the same…’

‘People have an annoying habit of not learning from history, especially when it isn’t their history. However, I still think that someone is running things here. Not a Herosian. Someone brighter, better at long-term planning. A Jenlay or a Torem, maybe. Or it could be someone from outside the Federation territories. This Pinnacle bunch have been around a long time.’

‘They are a long way away. Beyond Old Earth, in fact.’

‘We don’t really know where they got themselves to during the Long Dark.’ Aneka placed the second mine, hiding it away on the underside of the power conduit. ‘Both armed?’

‘I’ve received handshake signals from both mines. We can detonate them whenever we wish.’

‘All right, now we need to find that communications centre.’ She walked back to her pack and slung it over her shoulders before heading for the door. ‘Any guesses?’

‘Up the ladder and turn right,’ Al replied. ‘Comms is supposed to be in the central section. We can move down there, start from the core systems and work out. Be careful, however, a lot of stations will put the primary control room in the core where it has maximum protection, and I don’t believe that area will be entirely unmanned.’

Aneka climbed the ladder and set off down the corridor. The construction in the station was not of Xinti design, which further cemented her thoughts on the mysterious power behind the Herosians. Actually, the use of more open frames in the bracing at the section joins tended to suggest Herosians had built the place. All the signs, not that there were many, were generalised Federation symbology. There was no actual lettering, just symbols. Some of the technology, like the reactor, was fairly advanced, more so than the general Herosian tech, but other parts seemed in line with the Federation standard. As with the cloaked frigates, the station seemed to have been built by someone with a fragmentary knowledge of higher technology.

The corridor came to a stop at a heavy door, obviously designed to hold pressure in the case of a hull breach. Al had no more trouble opening it than the reactor room door, but unlike that room, this one seemed to have occupants. Aneka could hear voices, even if she could not see anyone yet. What she could see made her frown.

The room at the core of the ship did not look like a control room, but it did remind her of another vessel she had been in. Racks of computer equipment occupied the large, open room, and her suit indicated that the temperature was quite cool. It had to be distinctly uncomfortable for Herosians, but it was likely good for the electronics.

‘This looks a lot like the computer room on Winter’s ship,’ Al commented.

‘Too much,’ Aneka replied. She moved through the racks, careful to make no sound as she sought out the voices. They were speaking Herosian, but as she got closer her translation software began picking out words.

‘The assault on New Earth was a necessity,’ a voice was saying in calm, measured tones, ‘but its failure simply means a return to the original strategy. We may have to work a little more slowly, but the Old Earth forces are too scarce to represent a significant threat outside the Joval system.’

Well, that was good news; the attack on New Earth had been successfully repulsed. Ella would be happy, if they could get out of this place alive.

‘We lost a lot of our strongest assets,’ another voice replied.

‘And the construction facilities are already at work replacing them.’

‘It will require months of work to…’ a third voice began, but was cut off quickly.

‘I have devoted centuries to the advancement of the Herosian species.’ Now the calm was tinged with irritation. ‘Did you think this war would be over in a few weeks, Admiral? My strategy requires years of careful, deliberate action. The attack on New Earth was a diversion, an attempt to eliminate a complication, but the plan continues. Your children will grow up in a Herosian empire which spans the entire Federation, and beyond it.’

Just as in Winter’s ship, there was a central area of the room with no equipment. Hers had seating in a ring where she could talk to anyone visiting her. Here the area was laid out more like a throne room. There were ten chairs, four of them occupied by Herosians in shipsuits with high-rank insignia on them, all facing a much larger chair on which another figure sat. This one looked like a Herosian, but it was twice the size and dressed in the traditional kilt and armbands. Something about it seemed wrong and Aneka could not immediately figure out what it was.

‘No body heat,’ she noted, suddenly realising what she was not seeing. ‘It’s a machine or…’

‘A hologram,’ Al finished. ‘A holographic projection. These computers, and a projected image, and the Xinti bodies… It’s an AI.’

One of the Admirals spoke, the one who had suggested the rebuilding would take too long. ‘Of course, Lord Summer. I did not mean to suggest…’

Aneka ducked back behind the cabinet she was looking around and forgot about whatever else the man was going to say. ‘Lord Summer?’

‘It can’t be,’ Al responded. ‘Summer was decommissioned. He was deactivated because he couldn’t cope with what the Herosians did after their uplift.’

‘Too big a coincidence. It has to be him.’

‘This changes things. The viral system was not designed to wipe the memory of an AI, certainly not a Xinti AI.’

‘Shit,’ Aneka said. ‘We need to find somewhere secure where we can talk to Ella. This just got a lot more complicated.’

~~~

‘It can’t be him!’ Ella stated. ‘I mean… Let’s put aside the fact that Summer was decommissioned for going insane. If it were him, the Herosians wouldn’t need to reverse engineer anything. Summer would know all about the technology they’re using, and the Herosians may not be the brightest kids on the block, but they aren’t that stupid.’

‘Yeah,’ Aneka replied over the neutrino comms unit. ‘I know, but…’

‘And they would have known exactly what Winter was, because Summer knew her.’

‘I agree it doesn’t make sense exactly, but neither does anything else around here. The Herosians are definitely looking to this “Lord Summer” as a leader, they’ve got access to a lot of high-tech kit, the computer systems in that room look a lot like the systems Winter runs on, so Summer is probably an AI, and he said he’d been around for centuries.’

‘But…’

‘I don’t know exactly what’s going on, Ella, but it’s too big a coincidence. And whatever that thing is, it presents us with a problem.’

‘Aneka is correct,’ Gwy broke in. ‘An AI was not figured into the equation. This will make the task of inserting the virus much harder.’

‘Oh,’ Ella said. ‘Except that Aneka has a plan, right?’

‘Aneka has a plan, right,’ Aneka replied.

‘And I’m not going to like it,’ Ella went on. ‘At all, right?’

‘No, you’re not. If it’s any consolation… I don’t like it either.’

Herosian Asteroid Station, 3.2.530 FSC.

The sound of alert claxons was loud in the corridors of the station. The only thing louder was the heavy footfalls of two of the Xinti war forms charging down the corridor toward Aneka. Behind her was an airlock, its inner door standing open. That was what had triggered the alarm and she could have made a move for it, but one of the huge robots was already aiming a rifle at her while the other closed the distance more slowly. Escape was out of the question. She got up from her crouched position and raised her hands, and hoped that Summer was going to want to interrogate her before blowing her apart.

The war body closest to her reached out. Its hand had three thick metal fingers and a thumb, and it closed the digits around her throat as the thumb and forefinger settled under her jaw. Instead of tightening its hand, it lifted her, pulling it toward its face. A Jenlay would have been choking, but Aneka’s body was made of sterner stuff.

‘Aneka Jansen,’ Summer’s voice said from somewhere in the robot’s body. That confirmed they were remote avatars. ‘I have spent some considerable effort to get you here covertly, and here you are walking right into my home.’

Aneka said nothing. She might not have needed the air, but speaking while suspended by her head from a robot’s arm was hardly easy.

‘I’m looking forward to meeting you in person. I’m surprised you came unarmed… Ah, but you have a bag. A bomb, no doubt. Your weapons, perhaps?’ The second robot walked forward and picked up her rucksack, but did not bother looking inside. ‘I assume you’re aware of the capabilities of these combat forms. You will not attempt to escape. I would prefer to keep you functional for as long as possible, but you can function without arms and legs so please do not resist.’

The robot holding Aneka turned around and lowered her to the deck, releasing her throat and then motioning her down the corridor.

‘Okay,’ Aneka said, rubbing her jaw. ‘I’ll come quietly.’ She set off down the corridor, followed by the two war forms.

The airlock was at the far end of the asteroid from the hangar, a section largely devoted to electronics. There was a heavy turret out here, but aside from that, the entire section contained defensive systems: electronic warfare equipment to make targeting more difficult and a cloaking system which Summer seemed to think was unnecessary at the moment since it was not active.

The robots motioned her through the corridors toward the midsection, and she made a show of checking which direction she should go whenever they came to a junction. For as long as possible she wanted him thinking that she had just entered the station. They were, however, heading for the central computer room, passing by the large room containing all the communications equipment as they did so.

That was above the computer room and beside it was a lift which was a little cramped with Aneka and two huge guards in it. The drop was only one floor, however. Aneka figured this was how Summer’s visitors normally got there, rather than coming through the service corridors from the reactor area. As the lift doors opened, a third robot motioned her out and she followed it to the centre of the room where the Herosians were looking anxious and Summer’s hologram was sitting on his throne wearing what was probably a huge grin for a Herosian. The display of sharp teeth just came across as threatening.

One of Aneka’s guards put a hand on her shoulder and pressed down. Rather than test how much force her skeleton could take, she dropped to her knees, her eyes on the deck.

‘We need to kill her,’ one of the Admirals hissed in Herosian.

‘She is too valuable a resource,’ Summer replied. ‘If we can replicate her we can send infiltration units into Jenlay space. She has proven to be a very effective assassin and she remained undetected by them for several years before we revealed her secret.’

‘She’s dangerous…’

‘She is our prisoner!’ Summer roared in Federal. ‘Are you not, Miss Jansen?’ She figured he did not know she could understand Herosian.

‘It looks like it,’ Aneka stated, her tone sour.

‘Indeed. Admiral Sh’Shanis, would you take a look in her bag? I want to know how she planned to destroy us.’

‘It could be booby-trapped.’ She recognised the voice as one of the ones she had heard earlier. Sh’Shanis was the man who had ordered the attempt on her life on Farrington’s World. It figured he would prefer not to get his own hands dirty.

‘I don’t think our guest would want to blow herself up,’ Summer said in Federal, despite the fact that the Admiral had spoken his own language. ‘It’s not trapped, is it?’ Aneka remained silent and Summer snapped, ‘Open it.’

There was a pause, presumably while the Herosian did as instructed. ‘It’s a bomb. Not excessively large, but I don’t recognise the design.’

‘Leave it,’ Summer told him. ‘Anything we don’t recognise is worth studying.’ He switched back to Federal to speak to Aneka. ‘I’m impressed. You have managed to find this place, get into the system undetected, and then get aboard this station wearing nothing but a skimpy bit of Ultraskin.’

‘It wasn’t that hard,’ Aneka replied. ‘You never expected anyone would figure out you were here, did you?’

Summer barked a laugh, just a fraction of a second too late to make it convincing to Aneka. ‘It was inevitable that we would be discovered eventually.’

‘Not so quickly, though. You didn’t expect an attack this fast.’

Another slight pause. Summer’s brain worked as fast as Aneka’s; the interruptions in his flow were almost certainly going undetected by the Herosians, but to her it was like talking to a regular person.

‘I’m forgetting my manners,’ Summer said, deflecting the conversation. ‘I know who you are, but you don’t know me. I am Summer, architect of the Herosian rise to their true position in the galaxy.’

‘You’re an AI,’ Aneka said, lifting her head finally to look at the hologram sitting in front of her. ‘I recognise the equipment. I’ve seen it before. And I know that name.’ She glanced toward the Herosians behind her. ‘Do they even know what you are?’

‘Lord Summer’s allegiance is to the Herosian people,’ one of the Admirals stated. ‘We know who created him. It does not matter.’

‘Herosians working with a Xinti AI? I find that hard to believe.’

‘The Sh’Shanis and K’Thorn clans discovered me here after the war,’ Summer said. ‘They recognised the hardware as Xinti, but they accepted me and constructed this station to house me.’

‘I don’t get it. You shouldn’t be working on cobbled together technology with a Xinti AI to provide information. I’ve met AIs active for that long. You destroyed them. They had technology beyond…’

‘My mind was intact,’ Summer interrupted her, ‘but my memory was severely damaged. I remember almost nothing before waking up in this system. I have my purpose, however, and I have worked together with generations of Herosians to piece together enough Xinti science to give us superiority.’

‘Ah… So you don’t know how you ended up here with no memory? I don’t suppose they’ve told you their early history. I don’t think they realise they’ve been living off Xinti technology since long before they met you.’

‘Silence, woman,’ Sh’Shanis snapped. ‘You know nothing.’

‘The Jenlay are the same,’ Aneka replied in a conciliatory tone. ‘The Xinti uplift projects. The only race which they didn’t do it to was the Torem. They’ve made messes all over the galaxy by pushing species beyond the limits of their normal intellects. They dropped a warp-capable ship on Old Earth to get Humanity to the stars, just like they did with the Herosians.’ Her gaze fixed on Summer. ‘You were created to run that project.’

The hologram’s eyes narrowed. ‘I was created to accelerate the growth of the Herosians, yes. I continue to ensure their rise to power.’

‘Yeah, but they were a little too eager to rise fast. They found a world in the Armoineus system. It was perfect for them, but it had an indigenous, sentient life form already on it.’

‘Silence!’ Sh’Shanis roared.

Aneka ignored him. ‘So they wiped most of them out and enslaved the rest. And then they came across Xinti outposts and tried the same trick. They started the Xinti War. You couldn’t cope. You had to be shut down because the species you were created to nurture are a bunch of homicidal megalomaniacs. It drove you mad.’

Summer was glaring at her. She knew she was making him angry, but then, that was the whole point. ‘I’ve no idea how you ended up here. There was a scientist named Magdigan who ran the Herosian uplift project with you. He broke down and ran from Negral. Maybe he brought your runtime here, but couldn’t get his hands on your memory… Or your memory couldn’t be successfully reintegrated. I’m told that’s hard to do. Once again, the Herosians owe their rise to genocidal power to a Xinti mistake.’

‘She lies!’ one of the Admirals burst out.

Aneka climbed to her feet. None of her guards stopped her. ‘That last bit is a guess,’ she admitted, ‘but I’m telling the truth. I’ve spoken to your old boss, and Winter. Had you figured out what Winter is yet? No? She was the AI created to uplift Humans. I did wonder why you didn’t know, but the memory loss explains that nicely. I bet you don’t even know your full name.’ When the hologram made no move to respond she went on, ‘You are Bright Days of Growth Prepare the Coming Harvest, Summer for short. That’s why she’s Winter. She’s a lot better adjusted than you, given that her charges aren’t arrogant, acquisitive, self-centred nutjobs.’

One of the robots reached for her, but she dropped, rolling away from it and rising to her feet beside the throne. The other two raised their rifles.

‘I don’t want to blow myself up,’ Aneka said, ‘but I don’t think you want them firing antimatter pulses in here either. Let’s just quit the posturing. I can’t get out of here without you pulling me apart, but you’re not going to risk a fight inside your own brain.’

The rifles were lowered and one of the robots turned, marching off toward the lift they had come down in.

‘Of course, you’re right,’ Summer said, his tone calm. ‘The exit is guarded here and above. You will be… disarmed, as soon as you leave.’

‘Pun intended?’ Aneka suggested.

‘I have a sense of humour. I’ll find it most amusing to watch you being dismantled. I assure you that you’ll be conscious through the entire process. That AI of yours, Al, will be destroyed quickly however. And I care little for what the Herosians have done, Miss Jansen, or how I came to be here. The loss of my memories is, I see now, a good thing. It gave me clarity.’

‘Uh-huh. You’re clearly insane.’ She checked a timer in the corner of her vision. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing you die a final time.’

‘And how do you propose that is going to…’ Summer stopped speaking, his holographic image frowning as he looked upward as though listening to something. ‘Primary communications are failing. Secondary systems are still active… What have you done, Jansen?’

‘Radio pulse detected,’ Al stated. ‘Summer will have detected the same thing.’

‘We need that door unlocked,’ Aneka replied. The timer had reset to ten seconds and was counting down.

‘Jansen?!’ Summer roared, his image turning to face her.

Aneka grinned at him, raising her left hand, middle finger pointing to the ceiling. ‘I’ve been keeping you busy. Fuck you and goodbye.’ Then she dived backward, scrabbling for the cover of one of the server stacks. Al activated the rollout of her suit as she did so; she was going to need it because she could hear at least one of the robots stomping after her over the sudden uproar of confused, frightened Herosian naval officers.

Aneka jinked around a second rack as the suit closed over her completely. ‘Camouflage enabled,’ Al announced. ‘The unit has enhanced hearing, but Summer may be able to see through surveillance cameras. We should move. Hopefully the Herosians will make hearing us difficult.’

Not wearing heavy boots helped. The war form rounded the rack and reached for the space where Aneka’s head should have been. Yes, Summer had seen her vanish, but he clearly could not tell that she had moved. She slowed down to a walk and started for the door opposite the one she had come through the first time she had entered the room. Summer did not know she knew about it, but he might figure it out soon.

She noted the timer; two seconds to go so even if he did figure it out, he was about to get something of a shock.

‘You cannot escape, Jansen!’ Summer’s voice beat at her ears from speakers all around the room. ‘I’ll find you and…’

Zero.

Aneka almost fell as a series of violent explosions shook the ship. The lights flickered for a second and then stabilised, and the shouting from the Herosians grew significantly louder. The door ahead of Aneka slid open and she bolted for it and the corridor beyond. If Summer was still capable of watching her he was going to figure out where she was going pretty soon. Then again, he had not seen the other door opening on its own.

‘On the third hand,’ Al said, ‘that war form is behind us.’

Aneka picked up the pace. ‘Damage reports?’

‘The station is on backup power. The reactor room is not even reporting damage. The primary and secondary communications systems are damaged and offline. The mine in the crate appears to have entirely wiped out that section, but there are radiation alerts in everything the other side of the bulkhead at that end.’

‘Prime the satchel,’ Aneka ordered.

‘When that goes off…’

‘That’s why I’m running.’

‘Aneka, that detonation could seriously destabilise the structure of the station,’ Al warned.

‘That’s why I’m running fast. Do it!’ A timer appeared in the corner of her vision; ten seconds to make it through seventy-five metres of corridors and up one level. But the living metal suit she was wearing gave her amazing speed. She could do it in under five seconds and she would have a bulkhead between her and the explosion in less. The ladder was going to be the slow part…

As she passed the bulkhead and the door began to close behind her, Aneka jumped, grabbing for the top rung on the ladder on her left. To accommodate the huge robot bodies, the ceilings were up around three-and-a-half metres, but she made it easily and began hauling herself up to the next level.

There was a robot standing in the corridor a couple of metres from the ladder, between her and her exit. For a fraction of a second, as its rifle swept around toward her, she thought the thing knew she was there. Then the rifle scanned back again. No, it knew nothing, but she had to slip past it and that was going to slow her down.

Six seconds…

Moving as fast as she dared, Aneka slid past the robot, as close to the wall as she could manage. Then she walked on another few metres, her spine tensing in preparation for a shot in the back, before she picked up the pace again.

Three seconds…

‘Is Ella ready?’ Aneka asked.

There was a slight pause and then Ella’s voice in her head. ‘Are you coming? Please tell me you’re coming.’

‘I’m coming. How’s the airlock?’

‘I’ve got it open. There’s no sign of any Xinti yet, but…’

‘I think they’re busy. We made a mess and I’ve set the big bomb…’

‘Shit, how…’

Aneka rounded a corner and saw the open airlock door, Ella crouched beside it in the same sort of metallic suit she was wearing, with the addition of a life support unit. The station chose that moment to lurch as though it had been hit by a small moon. The sound of metal groaning as it tried to hold itself together under stress it was not designed to take filled her ears.

‘Get in!’ Aneka yelled over their comm. She was a second away herself and it felt as though the station was not going to survive that long. She watched Ella turn and bolt in through the hatch. Slowing down was not an option, she was going to hit the outer door hard, but bruises were the least of her concerns. Ella slammed her hand on a control as Aneka ran past her, and the inner door started to close. Aneka hit the outer door and bounced.

The hatch made it about halfway before grinding to a halt with a screech. The rock the airlock was drilled into was deforming around them. Ella ignored it, yanking open a panel beside the outer door, grabbing the heavy lever behind it, and using all the force her suit could provide to pull it down. There was a series of small explosions and then they were being propelled out of the airlock by the air blasting out after the hatch.

Aneka caught Ella’s wrist and pulled her close. They tumbled in space, clinging to each other and catching glimpses of the devastation they had left behind them. The asteroid and the station within were falling apart. Deep fissures crossed the rocky surface and there were ruptures where sections of the hull had blown out entirely. Summer, and most of the Herosian Admiralty, were gone.

Pointing her right arm, Aneka fired off a force pulse which pushed them away from the destroyed station and their initial trajectory. A second or two later Gwy appeared on their flight path, airlock open and ready to receive them. There would be enough chaos to cover their escape. Aneka figured the Herosians in the area were too busy trying to mount rescue attempts to check for a ship appearing from nowhere for a few seconds.

‘We made it,’ Ella said. ‘We found someone to blow up, and you blew them up.’

‘Almost,’ Aneka replied. ‘Almost made it. Say that again when we’re out of the system and in bed.’

Giggles did not translate well over the link. ‘Okay. I will.’

Epilogue

Gwy, 3.2.530 FSC.

‘We made it,’ Ella said, more of a groan than a statement.

‘We’ve been “making it” for the last hour,’ Aneka replied. Her tongue flicked out, grazing the tip of one of Ella’s nipples.

Ella squirmed. ‘I mean we got out alive… And we planted the virus…’

‘You planted the virus. I’m really proud of you.’

‘Is that why… oh, don’t stop… I’m being treated to… all this attention?’

‘Sort of. Mostly it’s just stress relief.’

‘Do you think it worked?’

‘Well so far my stress is being relieved.’

Ella managed a slightly choked giggle. ‘I meant the virus.’

‘Gwy? What’s the status on the stations in the system?’

The obsidian girl appeared beside the bed, apparently watching the couple with some interest, though her voice was all business. ‘Chaotic. The virus has only had an hour and a half to work, but I am already detecting shutdowns in some of the manufacturing plants. There has been an increase in outgoing tachyon traffic commensurate with the virus transmitting itself to other systems.’

‘Sounds… like it’s working,’ Ella moaned as Aneka’s hand began a rhythmic stroking between the redhead’s legs.

‘Pardon me, Aneka,’ Gwy said, her tone questioning, ‘but if this is meant for stress relief it seems to do the opposite. Ella’s heart rate and blood pressure are heightened, her rapid breathing is reducing her oxygen intake. How is that relieving stress?’

Aneka laughed. ‘When we get back to Shadataga, ask Winter.’

5.2.530 FSC.

Aneka sat in Gwy’s flight chair with Ella in her lap. Gwy stood beside them, apparently on empty space. All three watched the sensor readouts from the system they were still orbiting.

‘It looks… dead,’ Ella said.

‘The last transmission went out over four hours ago,’ Gwy supplied. ‘The only two functional vessels left the system just after that.’

‘There was too much Xinti technology in the equipment here,’ Aneka said softly. ‘The virus shut it all down and left everything working fitfully at best. If they want to come back they’ll need to bring their own gear.’

There was silence for a few seconds and then Ella asked, ‘How… How many do you think died?’

‘It is only an estimate,’ Gwy said, ‘based on the number who could have been on the transports and the probable complement of the observed stations, but approximately a quarter of a million.’

‘Oh. I suppose I shouldn’t care. They wouldn’t care about me, but…’

‘You should care,’ Aneka told her. ‘No one should ignore loss of life. Sometimes there’s no avoiding it, but you should still care.’

‘It’d be easier if I didn’t.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Aneka pulled her partner closer. Their lips touched, a light grazing of sensitive skin. ‘But caring, even about your enemies, is the difference between being a warrior and a murderer.’ She raised her voice again. ‘Gwy, plot us a course to Shadataga and get us into warp.’

‘Of course, Aneka,’ Gwy replied. ‘You don’t wish to initiate the warp transition yourself?’

Aneka got to her feet, lifting Ella with her. ‘No, I trust you, and Ella needs some attention.’

‘More stress relief?’

‘Not exactly. The nice thing about this particular activity is that if you slow it down it can ease an aching heart as well.’

###

About the Author

I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

Writing, sadly, is not my main source of income. By day, I’m a computer programmer. I work for a telecommunications company in Manchester, England. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

For More Information

The Thaumatology Blog: http://thaumatology.wordpress.com

The Steel Beneath the Skin Blog: http://steelbeneaththeskin.wordpress.com

Other Books by this Author

The Thaumatology Series

Thaumatology 101 (ASIN: B006IYIESW)

Demon’s Moon (ASIN: B006JPN7A0)

Legacy (ASIN: B006OKR8PK)

Dragon’s Blood (ASIN: B0072S1DOU)

Disturbia (ASIN: B007GNICZO)

Hammer of Witches (ASIN: B007YG2I44)

Eagle’s Shadow (ASIN: B008E17TYW)

Ancient (ASIN: B00923F8AS)

Dragonfall (ASIN: B00AKV95XW)

The Other Side of Hell (ASIN: B00AS0NF54)

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll (ASIN: B00BNSQ4AS)

Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study (ASIN: B006ZAJ7TY)

Tales from the Dubh Linn (ASIN: B0080XPD88)

The Aneka Jansen Books

Steel Beneath The Skin (ASIN: B00D4MN40O)

The Cold Steel Mind (ASIN: B00FJIQ85O)

Steel Heart (ASIN: B00H0GYRQA)

The Winter War (ASIN: B00I6HRXAE)

Table of Contents

Part One: Heat

Part Two: Fuel

Part Three: Fire

Part Four: The Slow War

Part Five: What Once Was Lost

Part Six: The Battle of New Earth

Part Seven: Summer Without Sun

Epilogue