Steel Beneath the Skin

An Aneka Jansen Novel

By Niall Teasdale

Copyright 2012 Niall Teasdale

Amazon Kindle Edition, Revised 2014

Contents

Part One: Aneka

Part Two: Where Men Once Walked

Part Three: On the Edge

Part Four: Terra Nova

Part Five: Plus ça Change

Part Six: Humanity

Part Seven: Facilitating Change

Part One: Aneka

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Spotlights worked their way along the hull of the wreck searching out a method of ingress. The hulk looked like it was in surprisingly good condition, given that it was floating in deep space. Far enough away from any system that the space really was empty, it had avoided collision with asteroids and comets which might have damaged it badly, but there was a lot of pitting from minor dust impacts and cosmic rays. In fact, the only major damage seemed to be at one edge of the disc-shaped craft where something had torn through the hull.

‘Radiation readings negative,’ Patton said. ‘No residual gasses.’

Drake, his hands shifting delicately over the controls for the manoeuvring jets, nodded and skated the Garnet Hyde to a stationary position near the hole in the hull. ‘Drake to boarding team. Clear for EVA.’

‘Boarding team proceeding to breach,’ Bashford’s voice said from the console speakers, and three figures in skintight vacuum suits appeared from the airlock under the bridge.

Bashford was leading: he had the experience and skill. Ella was following him a little too closely, but she did have all the sensor gear and it was important that she had that in range of anything dangerous before he got to it. Monkey brought up the rear. His name was actually David Gibbons, but he was the youngest person on the crew, even younger than Patton, and with a name like Gibbons he had naturally been dubbed ‘Monkey.’

As they reached the ship’s hull and the gap in it, Ella Narrows’ voice sounded over the ship’s comms system. ‘Confirming radiation readings within normal parameters. The carbonisation around the breach suggests a plasma containment failure. I suggest we set up the temporary airlock in case the interior atmosphere is intact.’

Down in the main lab, Doctor Gillian Gilroy’s eyes scanned over the readouts from Ella’s instruments and the view through three helmet cameras. ‘That would be a wise precaution. If this ship is as intact as it seems, we don’t want to risk further damage.’

‘Deploying portable lock unit,’ Monkey said.

‘I’m seeing no floating debris inside the ship,’ Ella said as Bashford and Monkey began manoeuvring the heavy plastic disc into place. ‘This section at least must have explosively decompressed.’

‘Fast enough that nothing was left in orbit around the ship,’ Drake agreed. A ship as big as this one had enough gravity to overcome low-speed expulsions.

Ella’s view of the interior was blocked as the airlock was placed over the gap. It took little more than a minute to seal the edge of the disc to the hull, and then they moved through it, closing the outer flap over the hole and locking it down. Now if they let atmosphere into the destroyed engine room it would not be leaving the ship.

Ella sighed though the sound did not transmit outside her helmet. ‘No EM readings,’ she said for the benefit of the rest of the crew. ‘There’s a breach in the outer shell of the main reactor. Can you see that, Doc?’

‘Yes,’ Gilroy’s voice said. ‘Secondary power systems would be long dead by now. I doubt any of the systems are live. Please take some samples. We’ll run dating analysis and see just how old this thing is.’

‘We’re going to have to cut through the hatch to gain access to the rest of the ship,’ Bashford said. ‘You’ve got time to collect samples.’

Ella began floating around the dead terminals and damaged panels, breaking off pieces where there was already plenty of damage, and slipping them into stowage bags hung from her belt. Monkey went to work on the hatch’s locking bars with a fusion torch. Despite Bashford’s comment, it was relatively quick work: nothing much could stand up to the temperature of the plasma coming from the torch. After a few minutes, the two men were pulling the hatch open.

There was no rush of air into the room, but there was a bitten-off cry of shock from Monkey as he saw the body floating in the interior corridor. Ella was both less surprised and more excited. ‘Doctor? We’ve got a Xinti corpse here. It looks like the air must have drained out of the interior more slowly. Preservation is excellent.’ She pushed herself into the corridor to get a better view of the body. It was humanoid, not especially tall, with elongated fingers and a ridged, back-swept look to its face. The mottled grey skin was natural colouring, not due to vacuum exposure.

‘So I see,’ Gilroy replied. Her hands began to move over a nearby virtual keyboard. ‘I’m prepping containment facilities now. Check your scanner.’

Ella looked down at the handheld unit. ‘EM reading. It’s weak, but constant.’ She moved the scanner head from side to side a couple of times. ‘To the right,’ she said, and began to propel herself in that direction.

Slightly exasperated, Bashford pushed ahead of her, pulling a pistol from its holster on his thigh. It looked a lot like everything on the ship had died a long time ago, but if that was not the case, it was best to be ready.

The signal led them about a third of the way around the ship before Ella narrowed it down to a door on the outer side. ‘In here,’ she said. ‘It’s a light door. Maybe a storage room. Pry bars?’

Bashford nodded to Monkey, moving to where he could cover the door with his blaster. It took two firm tugs before the lock gave way and the door broke open. There was no immediate weapons fire; Monkey wedged his crowbar against the door and pushed. Ella started forward, then realised Bashford would yell at her and held back while he pushed into the room, sweeping his gun around. He stopped moving and was silent for about a second before his voice cut in over the comms link.

‘You have got to be fucking kidding me!’

~~~

She dreamed of computers’ scrolling text in front of her eyes. When she opened them, she was not sure the dream had ended. There were screens around her, hanging over the plastic shell which kept her on some sort of examination bench. The displays looked like something out of a science-fiction TV show, one with a fairly large budget. She would have been impressed if she could move anything below her neck.

‘You’re safe,’ a male voice said from somewhere nearby, almost in her ear. She tried to look, but her body was having none of it. ‘The best thing for now would be to rest. You’ve been through a lot. You’re not fully recovered.’

‘Rested enough,’ she said, her voice sounding thick in her own ears. Her body was also having none of that. She closed her eyes and whatever the voice said next was lost in the haze of gathering unconsciousness.

~~~

Ella stood at the observation window of the medical bay’s containment room. It had very good security as well as the best diagnostic scanners. ‘She’s gorgeous,’ she said, though it was not necessarily aimed at Doctor Gilroy who was examining the readouts from the sensors in the room. Gilroy looked around anyway to where their patient was laid out, naked, on the bed in the room.

The woman they had found on the Xinti ship was, indeed, good-looking even by the standards of the age. She had the physique of a dancer, or perhaps a martial artist; Gilroy was not familiar enough with martial artists to be sure of the latter. There was a lot of long, lean muscle, barely any fat. Her waist was slim, her hips wide enough to give a pleasing shape, very solid thighs, and large breasts which stood out firmly and were rather more pert than nature should have provided her with. Then again, nature had little to do with body form these days. Her face was narrow, her cheeks hollow with high cheekbones, and she had full lips with quite a pronounced bow. Her hair was short, a cap of white, a straight fringe swept down to points in front of her exposed ears and a tight trim at the back of the neck. She did look like a perfect specimen of Humanity, which made the truth all the stranger.

‘Attractive, certainly,’ Gilroy said. ‘The issue, however, is not that she looks good, but that she exists at all. We’ll need to be careful. We have no idea how she’ll react when she wakes up.’

‘You want me to handle that?’

‘You’re the psychologist. I’ll observe, of course.’

Ella nodded, her eyes never leaving the body of the woman in the isolation chamber.

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She could move now, that was something. Blinking in the light, she pulled herself up into a sitting position. The plastic bubble had become a room with very solid-looking walls, a door which looked like it was airtight, and a double-glazed window which looked equally solid. Beyond the window she could see the backs of displays and a woman who appeared to be around thirty, with wavy, brown hair and a Hispanic complexion, who was working on something away from the window. Attracting this woman’s attention seemed a good idea. She swung her legs off the edge of the bed, noting that her clothes were missing for the first time. That was when the second woman appeared at the window.

This one appeared to be in her early twenties. Tall, slim, attractive, with pale skin, blue eyes, and shoulder-length hair, red-orange with more vibrant red streaks radiating from the crown. She was dressed the same as the one outside, in a white, one-piece, skintight, and translucent bodysuit which left nothing to the imagination. She was smiling.

‘Hi, I’m Ella. What’s your name?’ Aneka saw the redhead’s lips move, but the voice came from overhead speakers. The room seemed to be airtight.

‘Aneka. Aneka…’ She trailed off. ‘I don’t remember my surname. Or much of anything else.’ Aneka looked at the strange woman, taking in details. The clothes, the equipment. ‘Where am I?’

‘You’re aboard the Garnet Hyde. It’s a research ship. We found you on a derelict. Do you remember anything about that?’

Aneka could feel the hum of engines through the vessel’s floor, but they were very, very smooth, and there was no movement, no sense of swell from water underneath them. The skinsuit the woman was wearing looked like something out of a sci-fi porno. ‘When you say “ship,” you aren’t talking about something that floats in water, are you?’

The older woman had turned from whatever she was doing and was looking in through the window as well, her eyes flicking to the monitors every so often. ‘That’s Doctor Gilroy,’ Ella said.

‘You didn’t answer my question.’

‘No… Well, you didn’t answer mine… The Garnet Hyde is a spaceship. We found you on another spaceship, an old one.’ She gave Gilroy a quick look. ‘A very old one.’

‘Right.’ Aneka’s eyes scanned the room, one arm absently rising to hang over her breasts. ‘Is this some sort of adult reality TV show? Where are the cameras?’

‘You’ve been floating in deep space for… a long time. It was pure luck that we came across the ship you were on. The crew were all dead… But we found you.’

‘I don’t remember much, but I know we don’t have deep space ships. Manned ones anyway.’

‘We don’t?’

‘Humans. Earthmen. You look like a human so I’m assuming you are. I never believed aliens would look exactly like us and have a perfect grasp of English, even if that’s what happens in the movies.’

‘I’m… Human, yes. Jenlay anyway. “Human” is an old sort of name for the species.’ The smile shifted up a notch; she was amused. ‘The ship you were on wasn’t a Jenlay ship though.’

‘So what was I doing on it? Are you saying I was kidnapped by aliens? Close encounters? Anal probes? Have I got an implant up my nose?’

The smile became confused. ‘What? No… I mean… I don’t… Could you excuse me for a second?’

Outside the window, Ella and Gilroy were talking, but the sound was cut off. Aneka was beginning to get a real feeling of dread, the kind of falling sensation in her stomach that came when… When what? When she lost something, someone… Damn! Why can’t I remember?!

‘Aneka?’ She looked up at the sound of Ella’s voice. ‘Uh, we need to go and discuss some things with the rest of the crew. Just… well, relax.’

‘Sure,’ Aneka said. ‘Take your time. I don’t appear to be going anywhere.’

~~~

‘She doesn’t know,’ Ella said.

‘She doesn’t know now,’ Patton said. Monkey nodded firmly in agreement. ‘You said yourself, she doesn’t remember anything aside from her first name.’

‘She thinks she’s a Jenlay,’ Ella insisted and then corrected herself. ‘She thinks she’s a “Human” from back when that ship was working. Did we get a date back?’

‘Over a millennium,’ Gilroy said. ‘The analysis is still working on narrowing it.’

‘All right,’ Drake said, his voice firm. They had been arguing this around for half an hour now and it was getting them nowhere. ‘Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that she doesn’t know, it’s not an act.’ He held up his hand as both Monkey and Patton opened their mouths. ‘Ella, what do you want to do about it?’

‘I think we tell her. I’d like to do it face-to-face. The containment room has an airlock, there’s no danger of her getting out.’

‘And no way for us to help if she decides to pull your limbs off,’ Bashford pointed out.

‘Yes,’ Ella replied, ‘but I think it’s a risk worth taking. I don’t think she’s hostile. And anyway, if she is, do you think you can keep her contained.’

‘You’re crazy,’ Monkey said.

‘Gillian?’ Drake asked.

‘It’s a risk, but I’m not sure there’s an alternative. As Ella pointed out, we aren’t equipped to deal with this. If she’s hostile we’ll have to divert to a naval base, and that will likely end this expedition.’

‘Okay,’ Drake said. ‘Ella, you’ve got the go-ahead.’

~~~

Aneka looked up as she heard a door shutting. It was not the door to her cell, but through the small window in it she could see Ella. So the door was some sort of airlock. Well, that made some sense if she was actually in quarantine. High-end NBC system, maybe. Now, the fact that she knew what ‘NBC’ meant suggested that maybe she was in the military. Maybe. She sat up to wait.

The inner door slid open, sideways, and Ella stepped through. She was not wearing a hood or helmet, or even a paper mask, so biohazards were out of the equation. She smiled and walked over to sit down on the chair which was bolted to the floor near the middle of the bed. She had a pretty smile, but it was distorted by worry.

‘How are you feeling?’ Ella asked.

‘Aside from the memory thing, I’m feeling fine. I don’t think I’ve ever felt better.’

‘Fridgy.’ Aneka wondered whether the girl ever looked anything other than happy.

‘Physically that is. I mean… I’ve been thinking and, if you’re a Human, even if you don’t call yourself that, and we’re on a spaceship, then I guess I was stuck on that ship for quite a while.’ Ella nodded; she looked uncomfortable, which was a change. ‘How long?’

‘We aren’t entirely sure.’ At least the final dates had come back before she came in. She could do better than ‘about a thousand years.’ ‘We ran dating analysis sequences on everything we could and we’re coming back with dates of eleven hundred and seventy-three years, plus or minus forty.’ Ella watched as this figure sank in; she was expecting something, probably hysterics, but Aneka just sat there staring at her toes.

‘My hair’s white,’ Aneka said after a while. ‘It used to be blonde. Dirty blonde, but blonde. Now it’s white.’ She looked up at Ella. ‘And I think someone gave me a boob job while I was out.’

The statement made Ella look at Aneka’s breasts. ‘They, um… They did a really good job on them.’

‘They’re a little bigger, I think, definitely more… perky.’

‘They’re…’ Ella shook her head and made a desperate attempt to look professional. Aneka spoke first.

‘Why would aliens kidnap me, turn my hair white, and perform cosmetic surgery on me?’

‘Well… Do you notice any other differences? Small things, maybe.’

‘Got a mirror?’ Ella pointed to a sink near the door which had a small mirror over it, and Aneka headed over to it. She looked into it, frowning as she turned her head from side to side. Then she turned and started twisting around to peer at her body. ‘I used to have a filling in one of my molars. I think that’s gone. Nothing else I can see… There was a chicken pox scar on my neck that I can’t feel.’ She looked down, pressing at the skin of her right thigh with a thumb. ‘The bullet wound I had here... that scar’s gone too. Odd, but…’

‘And there’s just the memory loss? You don’t feel any different?’

Aneka frowned. ‘You’re skirting around something. My memory’s fragged, but I’m pretty sure I’m the kind of person who prefers not to be bullshitted.’

‘I’m not actually sure what that means, but… maybe you should sit back down.’ She looked like she would be a lot more comfortable with Aneka sitting, so Aneka sat, perching on the bed and pulling her knees up to her chest. ‘I’m not really sure how to explain this…’

‘Just say it. I’ll ask questions if I don’t get it.’

‘Okay… The aliens who took you were called the Xinti. We think they were organic beings once, but that was thousands of years ago. They kind of… uploaded their minds into huge computers, used different bodies, robotic and engineered biological, according to their needs.’ She paused, her eyes fixed on Aneka. ‘And… that’s what they did to you.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘You’re, basically… um, a robot. A synthetic organism anyway. There’s a cybernetic chassis with a semi-organic body hung around it. The skin, definitely. Most of it is mechanical. Your mind is running as a program on the computer that controls it all. An emulation.’

There was silence as Aneka sat staring at Ella. She did not appear to be angry, or violent, or anything really. Just stunned. ‘That’s insane,’ she said after about a minute. Her voice was quiet, and uncertain. ‘I’m… I feel like… me. I can feel… I feel…’ Her voice stopped. She stopped. She just sat there, unmoving, not even breathing, her eyes blank.

‘What happened?’ Gilroy’s voice said over the speakers. ‘The readings on her electrical activity just dropped sharply.’

‘I think… I think she crashed. Shock? I’m going to sit here until she comes back.’

‘If she comes back.’

Ella did not answer, she just pulled her knees up, mimicking Aneka’s posture, and settled down to wait.

~~~

Aneka watched as text scrolled past her vision field. She did not take it all in, but what she saw seemed to be diagnostic information. Actuator systems, power systems, biological activity, sensors. The final statement was an ‘unexpected process halt’ report stating that her systems had successfully dumped short-term memory to the long-term after the event. Ella had been telling the truth. At least that was what it looked like considering that she was watching her body go through what amounted to a start-up health check.

Ella was still there, where she had been when Aneka had blacked out, which was four hours ago, according to the downtime statement she had seen. The lights in the room had been dimmed and the redhead was sprawled in her chair, eyes closed. The rhythmic breathing, the steady rise and fall of her chest, indicated that she was, most likely, asleep.

Aneka sat still and took in what she could see. The room, and the one beyond the window as best she could tell, had bare metal walls which looked like hammered steel. The floor was smoother, but with ridges which presumably improved traction. There were screens which looked more or less like the LCD screens she was used to, but a lot thinner and in some cases transparent, outside the window. Instruments and machines of various types she had no clue about could be seen beyond those. There was no one out there watching, though she figured there were cameras she could not see in the room, so someone could have been monitoring remotely.

Then there was Ella. She was a pretty girl. Cute might be the right term. Asleep and not smiling she looked kind of sad. Aneka found herself wanting to see the girl smile again: she had a really cheerful smile that made you feel better seeing it. Her breasts were on the smallish side, her body slim without any excessive muscle, but still toned. The suit she was wearing was clearly some sort of spacesuit. It was very thin, but there were ridges in the fabric which suggested some structure. The fabric itself looked like plastic, but it clung to her skin more like rubber. It really clung, following every contour.

Reaching out slowly, Aneka put her finger on Ella’s knee, which happened to be the closest available body part. The suit felt like plastic, slick, like polythene. When she pulled back and looked up, Ella was awake and smiling. She really did look so much better when she was smiling.

‘You’re awake,’ Ella said, stating the obvious. ‘We were a little worried I’d broken you.’

‘Broken, yeah. So, I watched my start-up sequence this time. I guess you’re right. I’m a robot.’

‘Not a robot exactly,’ Ella said urgently. ‘Well, yes, a robot, but you’re more than just a hunk of metal.’

Aneka lifted her hand, watched as she curled and straightened her fingers. ‘No, this looks like living flesh. A cyborg? I’m a Terminator sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor?’ She gave a half-hearted grin. ‘My brother was so into sci-fi. He’d think this was great… except he’s been dead for a thousand years.’

Ella jumped on the positive. ‘Fridgy! You remember you had a brother? Your memory’s returning?’

‘Fragments. I remember I had a younger brother, and I remember getting The Terminator for him on DVD and getting told off because my dad thought he was too young. I can’t remember what he looked like, or his name. I still can’t remember my name.’

‘I can help you with that.’ The voice was male and it came from the speakers. Aneka looked up to see a man standing at the window. He was tall, powerfully built, good-looking, and dressed in the same sort of one-piece suit as Ella. His head was bald, but he had the kind of skull that it looked good on. He held up a plastic card. ‘Aneka Jansen. While you were out, a couple of us went over to check the room we found you in for any evidence. Assuming this isn’t just some faked ID, you were working for a company named Anderson Security Consulting. We found a little booklet too, a “passport,” in the same name. That says you were a citizen of “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”’

‘That’s a terrible picture. The passport photo was worse. I nearly went back to the shop to get it done better.’

‘What about this consulting company?’ Ella asked. ‘Consulting sounds technical, maybe you were a programmer, researcher?’ Considering the muscled body it seemed unlikely, but you never knew.

Aneka’s eyes narrowed. ‘We did private security and hostage rescue. I was a soldier… later a mercenary, basically. Yeah. I was working in… Iraq! My team and I were sent in to pull out four engineers taken hostage by insurgents…’

Iraq, May 16th, 2011.

The enclave consisted of four mud-brick buildings within a low wall. The squad of six moved in on it by twos, keeping low. The guard on the south side died silently when his throat was slit. Another two guards died just as efficiently before the team swept in toward the buildings.

There were lights on in only one building. Aneka pointed Sims at the window. It was boarded shut, but his grenade launcher would make short work of that. Perry and Quinn were motioned to the door. She nodded to Sims as soon as they were in position. The launcher spoke twice and two stun grenades shattered the wood over the window. A second later the interior of the building filled with bright light and smoke, and two loud bangs left the occupants wondering what was happening long enough for the breach team to enter. There was the sound of automatic weapons fire.

Three insurgents, half-dressed and carrying AK-47s, burst out of one of the other buildings. They made it barely three yards before they were cut down.

‘Hostages secure,’ Perry’s voice announced over their field radios.

‘Move them out,’ Aneka said. ‘Sims, Dalton, Teague, make sure we’re not followed.’

Everything was running smoothly so far, just the way Aneka liked it. She stood up and took point out of the enclosure as Perry and Quinn hustled their charges out of the building. Four hundred yards out and they would make sure they were in the clear, and then bring in the evac chopper. Plain sailing.

They put the hostages in the centre of a circle and stood, weapons pointed outward. All four men were battered, bruised, and in shock, but they were safe now. The three remaining members of the extraction team moved up a couple of minutes later. Sims gave an OK sign as he walked toward Aneka. There had been no trouble. It was almost going too smoothly.

‘Sims, get the chopper on the radio,’ Aneka said as Dalton and Teague joined the circle.

‘I think it’s here,’ Sims replied, pointing upward. There was a light in the sky where he was pointing, pulsing red. Then the area was saturated with bright light and wind.

‘What the fuck’s he doing?!’ Quinn yelled.

Aneka covered her eyes and looked up at the vehicle overhead. There was wind, but no noise from the blades. She was just about to say that she did not think it was the helicopter when something hit her in the chest. Her entire body jerked and her vision blurred. For a fraction of a second she heard yelling, and then there was nothing.

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‘Sounds like an electronic rifle hit,’ the man behind the window said. ‘Puts several thousand volts through you guided by a couple of laser beams. Feels like someone plugged you into the mains, then you black out.’

‘A ranged taser,’ Aneka said. ‘Yeah, something like that.’

‘Uh, Aneka, this is Leo Bashford, one of our facilitators,’ Ella said by way of introduction.

Aneka looked out at the bald man. Probably ex-military, fairly intense, and watching her carefully. ‘I don’t remember what happened after that. There were ten of us there. Have you found anyone else?’

Bashford shook his head. ‘We did a bit more searching where we found you. It was basically a section of the ship’s hold. We haven’t had time to go through the rest of the ship. Besides which, we need Ella for that and she’s been in here.’

‘Uh, yeah. Thank you for waiting for me to come around.’ She let herself sit back against the wall, though she continued hiding herself behind her legs as much as possible. ‘Thanks for, well, rescuing me, I guess.’

‘We were passing by,’ Bashford said. ‘You were lucky the ship detected the mass. You were a navigational hazard, and a hard one to detect. A dead ship in space is next to invisible, especially at warp velocities. Once the ship saw you, it was obliged to slow down and wake one of the flight crew. They have to file a Navigation Hazard Report.’

‘But Drake, the captain, realised what he was looking at and woke the rest of us,’ Ella continued. ‘We’re with the University of New Earth doing archaeology, anthropology, that kind of thing.’

‘Wait… “New Earth?”’

Ella’s face straightened. ‘Joval Five was renamed as New Earth in two-fifty-five by our calendar. Old Earth… well, we’re not even sure where it is now. We have a rough idea, obviously, but it’s not worth finding anyway. The Xinti… it’s a cinder. We lost so much…’

Aneka looked at her, feeling cold. She wondered absently whether she should have that kind of physical reaction when she was made of steel and plastic. Of course Ella had said she was partially organic… ‘I think there’s some stuff you’re not telling me again.’

There was a soft thud as the pressure door shut. Both Aneka and Ella looked around to see that Bashford had entered the isolation room. Ella frowned at him. ‘You said…’

‘And now I’m ignoring what I said. Tell her about the War.’ He moved to stand behind Ella, looking closely at Aneka.

‘Your time was a pretty big one for the Jenlay,’ Ella began. Apparently she considered that and added, ‘You remember “Jenlay” is what we call what you called Humans, right? Anyway, it must have been not long after you were… captured because it was a Xinti ship that crashed and suddenly Jenlay had faster-than-light drives. Within a generation we were out there among the stars and we discovered the Herosians, and then the Torem. And then it all went to gopi. The Xinti came in like they had a divine purpose, sweeping across the galaxy and wiping out anything in their path. The Herosian home world went first, then Old Earth. The Torem brought out some old technology from somewhere and turned the tide. It took almost a century, but we eventually drove the Xinti back.’

‘The Torem pulled out after Xinti Prime was turned into an asteroid belt,’ Bashford continued. ‘The Jenlay did the same eventually, but the Herosians kept going until there were no Xinti left. The Xinti burned Earth, so we shattered their world.’

Aneka looked at him for a second wondering what he wanted from her. ‘Good?’

‘Good?’ he repeated. ‘Is that all?’

‘Look, these “Xinti” took me out of a desert, did God knows what to my team, ripped my mind out of my skull, and stuffed it into a robot. I’m not Aneka Jansen, I’m… her ghost. They killed me and couldn’t even let me die properly. I hate them, but they’re all dead. I can’t even get any payback.’ She sagged. ‘I can’t go home because home is deader than I am. A thousand years gone. My parents and brother died… They probably never knew what happened.’ Her head fell forward onto her knees. ‘Shit.’

There was silence for a few seconds and then Bashford said, ‘Drake and Gillian asked me to talk to you, see whether I believed this “mind emulation” thing. Gillian’s convinced, but not impartial. Ella’s very partial. Drake wanted my opinion.’

‘And?’ Ella asked.

‘I believe her. So… You’re going to be let out of this room. You’ll bunk with Ella, partially because you’ll need help adapting to life aboard ship, and Ella’s a psychologist. And partially because we don’t want you alone at any time. You’ll have a member of crew with you at all times. You’ll stick to the common rooms and your cabin unless we take you somewhere else.’

‘That’s fair,’ Aneka said. She was feeling cold again. ‘I’m not entirely sure I’d be so trusting. Do I get a kinky spacesuit to wear?’

‘You don’t need one,’ Bashford replied. ‘This is a standard shipsuit. Add gloves and a life-support helmet and it’s a functional vacuum suit. Standard policy is to wear one at all times in case of sudden decompression. The analysis on your body suggests you’re quite capable of surviving that circumstance without.’

‘I’ll need something to wear,’ Aneka countered and her voice sounded distant, even to her.

‘I’ll show you the fabricator system,’ Ella said. ‘Not that you need to wear anything.’ Considering the outfits the two of them were wearing, they were clearly not shy of their bodies, but Aneka felt the need to be at least somewhat dressed before she walked around the ship. At least she thought she did. Right now it felt like it did not matter much. Actually, nothing mattered much.

‘Great,’ she said, hearing the numb quality in her own voice, ‘but I think I’d like to lie down for a bit. I think the shock is starting to settle in.’

‘We’ll leave you to rest,’ Ella said, looking a little reluctant to leave, but she did, leaving Aneka to stretch out on the bunk.

She realised she was shaking. A high-tech, synthetic body and she was shaking. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. It did not come easily.

~~~

Aneka stepped through the door of the one communal room on the ship, her steps faltering a little as she heard the conversation dip. She knew it was not her choice of clothing, even if her outfit would have caused a stir in any restaurant on Earth. She had selected a sleeveless, high-hipped leotard made from a black, plastic material called Ultraskin according to the fabricator, which stretched over her skin and was translucent enough to allow medical sensors unrestricted access because Ella had said that was the reason for the semi-transparent quality of the shipsuits. The translucency varied to give a bit of form and expose some cleavage; she liked the way it hugged her body, and it met her requirement for something to wear while suggesting she was not worried that everyone else was more or less on show, even if she was not really used to it. She felt a need to fit in.

Ella had also suggested that not everyone would be entirely happy about her being a robot, or a ‘synthetic’ as Ella insisted on referring to her as. ‘Jenlay aren’t too worried, mostly. It’s… Well… There was a strong prejudice against it after the Xinti War, but practicality won out eventually. For most people. Most Jenlay anyway.’ Aneka’s confidence had not been bolstered by the statement.

Now she was walking in to meet the rest of the crew and it was clear that some of them were either nervous about her or they did not like her much. The mess doubled as a briefing room and the centrepiece was a circular table with ten chairs around it. Currently, there were only six crew, which left plenty of free spaces, and that was fine with Aneka since a couple of the crew did not look like they wanted anything to do with her.

As far as she could tell, these were the youngest ones. Shannon Patton was the captain’s second and if Aneka had not seen her on duty earlier she would have guessed the woman was there to just keep Drake’s sexual frustrations in check. Relatively short, big in the bust and hips, narrow in the waist, pretty and blonde, she looked like some sort of space bimbo but was quite professional when the situation called for it. Monkey was the other ‘problem.’ He was a good-looking kid with a fit, muscled body, a shock of black hair and an attempt at a goatee, and he watched Aneka constantly when he was near her. The look in his eyes suggested that he was not watching her figure.

Drake had never given his first name. He was ex-military, Aneka could tell by the way he kept his brown hair cropped short against his skull, the way he held his body, the lean muscle stretched over a solid skeleton. He was handsome, rugged. His nose had been broken at some point and had healed a little crooked: it just made him a little unique. None of the crew were ugly, or even average, but Drake was the only one with any form of imperfection. He was more used to keeping his emotions hidden as well, but Aneka got the distinct impression that he was at least a little wary of her.

That left Bashford, Gilroy, and Ella. Bashford maintained a professional neutrality, apparently unconcerned about the being they had found drifting in space. Gilroy was also professional, but there was a hint of enthusiastic interest. The scientist seemed to think of Aneka as a potential source of huge amounts of information, once her memory returned anyway. Ella was… Ella waved for Aneka to sit beside her, a big grin on her face as she sat down next to Gilroy. Aneka had not quite worked out the young woman’s angle yet, but she seemed keen to spend as much time with her new find as possible.

‘You’ve at least met everyone, right?’ Ella said as Aneka sat down beside her.

‘Yeah, in passing at least. Is this really all the crew?’

‘This is a fairly small ship, Miss Jansen,’ Drake said. He had a confident, commanding voice to go with that military bearing. ‘Three hundred and six tonnes, warp-capable, automated to a high degree. Shannon and I are really all that’s required, and that’s only for the active parts of the mission.’

Aneka nodded. ‘So you guys…?’

‘Ella and I handle the actual science,’ Gilroy said, ‘Bashford and Monkey are facilitators. They get us in, do the heavy lifting, keep us safe, generally make sure we can do what we came to do.’

‘Right.’ Aneka looked around the table. Everyone else was eating, but she did not feel hungry and had no idea what her dietary requirements were. Presumably, if she had organic parts she needed to eat… Patton’s pretty blue eyes were watching her. ‘Hey, is anyone in the future ugly?’ It was a calculated question and it produced the result she was hoping for; suddenly everyone was laughing. Aneka did not care whether they were laughing with or at her: they were laughing.

‘Yes,’ Gilroy said, ‘but you won’t find any in a spaceship crew.’

‘Nanosurgical techniques and body reconstruction,’ Ella said, ‘plus a few centuries of gene modification. Being unattractive is a choice. Even being slightly imperfect is a choice, like Drake’s nose. He could have had it fixed, but it’s a non-disfiguring, distinguishing feature.’

‘I like it,’ Patton commented, smiling and leaning up against the captain.

‘So do I,’ Ella said, ‘but it could have been reconstructed perfectly. In an environment like this, where we’re stuck with each other for a long time in a confined space, being unattractive would just be… rude.’

‘As long as I’m not being rude then,’ Aneka said, smiling.

‘Oh no, you fit in nicely.’ Ella smiled back, and Aneka got a distinct feeling that she had figured out the girl’s ‘angle.’

‘The Xinti did a really good job on your body,’ Patton said.

Aneka looked down. ‘I think they perked my boobs up a bit, but this is what I looked like before, as far as I can remember anyway.’

‘Perked?’ Shannon asked.

‘Yeah.’ Aneka poked at her right nipple through the thin plastic. ‘I don’t remember this being quite so… perky. They were a little more rounded…’ She looked up in time to see Ella staring before the scientist looked away quickly, her cheeks colouring. ‘Anyway, they didn’t change much. On the surface. I guess what’s underneath is pretty different.’

‘Just a little,’ Gilroy replied. ‘Under that skin is a layer of some sort of monocrystalline armour, which is making further analysis a little difficult. Your eyes and ear canals are cybernetic, and your skeleton appears to be metal of some sort. We can detect both organic and synthetic organs and devices, but not clearly enough to identify. The Xinti had technology a thousand years ago that we still haven’t matched. You probably have capabilities you have no idea about.’ Her head tilted slightly, thoughtfully. ‘For example, you have no trouble understanding us?’

Aneka frowned. ‘No. You’re speaking English… Even if it’s English that’s got to have changed over a thousand years…’

‘Exactly. In the last five hundred years, we know there have been changes in pronunciation, additions of words, sometimes from other species, changes in the meaning of words. The change in the name of our race happened sometime prior to that. I think that we must be speaking something akin to “English,” whatever that is, since you understood us quite well on waking up. However, I suspect your internal computer system is running some form of translation software which is bridging the gap. Anything else you may have in there is likely to emerge with practice.’

‘Ella keeps calling things “fridgy.” I figure that’s like “cool?”’

‘Like cool,’ Ella replied, putting on a slight drawl, ‘but cooler.’

Aneka shook her head, grinning. ‘So, I’ve got this computer in my head which is translating for me without me even realising it?’ Gilroy nodded in reply and Aneka frowned. ‘I’m not sure I like that. I mean, how do I know it’s not messing with my perceptions?’ Her gaze flicked to Patton and Drake.

‘That’s why Shannon is a little cold toward you,’ Drake said. ‘Monkey too. His father’s in the Navy so he’s heard plenty of stories about what the Xinti were capable of. You seem like a nice woman, but there’s something of a prejudice against mechanically altered Humans, intelligent robots, that kind of thing, due to the Xinti and we don’t know what kind of conditioning they may have put into that computer of yours.’

‘I don’t know anything about the Xinti, but I’d have to agree with you. I don’t like it either.’

Drake nodded. ‘Didn’t think you would. And that’s why I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.’

Aneka bowed her head to him. ‘Thanks. I’m not sure I’m willing to give me that.’

~~~

Ella’s cabin was built for two people, like most of the cabins on the ship. Drake and Gilroy had single-occupancy rooms, though Ella said that Patton usually slept in Drake’s. There were actually enough rooms that everyone could have had their own, but sharing cut down on the life-support requirements.

Two bunks took up one side of the room, what would have been a headboard at home being replaced by some sort of computer equipment, and there was a small table with two chairs, one of them located so that it could be turned around to use the console which also acted as an entertainment centre. Off to one side was a cubicle with a sink and shower, and Ella vanished into it to wash as soon as they got back to the room. Aneka sat on one of the chairs, her eyes scanning the room. Everything was gunmetal grey; somehow Aneka had expected space to look more like Alien with a lot of white plastic and smooth surfaces hiding jagged, crusty metal.

Ella clearly used the bottom bunk. The bed was made, but not as neatly as the upper bunk, and there was a small, tablet-like computer lying on the pillow, maybe some sort of digital book. The wardrobe beside the shower cubicle was open and Aneka could see another of the shipsuits hanging there, a helmet on the floor, and a few other bits and pieces of clothing which looked unsuitable for use on a ship.

‘Aneka?’

She looked up at the sound of Ella’s voice. The cubicle door was not fully closed to let them talk. ‘Yeah?’

‘I was wondering…’

When the sentence did not look like it would continue, Aneka decided it needed a prompt. ‘Wondering what?’

‘I was wondering whether you’d like to have sex.’

Aneka blinked. She had figured out that Ella was interested, but she had not expected quite such a direct approach on the matter. What the Hell should she say? She realised as the water stopped that she was not saying anything and Ella probably expected some sort of answer, but there was no answer forming. She figured that the surprise was still showing when Ella stepped, naked and still wet, from the cubicle, rubbing at her hair with a towel.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ella said, ‘I shocked you.’

‘Uh, yeah, a little.’ Trying to make herself sound more cosmopolitan, she added, ‘I didn’t figure you as gay.’

Ella frowned. ‘Gay? I’m usually pretty cheerful.’

Okay, that was obviously a word that had changed meaning. Back to the original meaning at that. ‘Uh, a lesbian?’

‘Oh, I’m not.’

‘But…’

‘Sexual bias is pretty much non-existent these days. Some people have preferences, but we pretty much have sex with whoever we’re attracted to. I’m attracted to you, in case you hadn’t noticed.’ Her face fell. ‘Oh… damn! I hadn’t thought. Sorry. You’ve probably never done it with a woman.’

‘Uh… Well, technically, I’ve never “done it” with anyone, in this body. I don’t even know if I’m… equipped. I mean, I seem to have the parts, but I’ve no idea if I’d enjoy it or…’

Ella moved forward, it was only a step, and her fingers were working the closure at Aneka’s throat. The seam down the front of the suit was held together by a magic Aneka had not figured out yet, and soon Ella had it open to her navel where it stopped. ‘Let’s just call this a scientific experiment then,’ Ella said, her hands sliding back up over the smooth plastic to Aneka’s shoulders, pushing the fabric out and back and down her arms. Aneka could have stopped her, and did not, unsure of exactly why.

Ella’s eyes watched Aneka’s as the leotard was pushed down far enough to expose her breasts and trap her arms against her sides. Aneka’s lips parted, her breathing coming faster. It was crazy really: anticipation was settling in quickly, easily. Delicate fingers traced a line across the underside of Aneka’s left breast. Her eyelids fluttered and a tiny sound, maybe a moan, broke the silence. Ella’s hands cupped and slowly lifted Aneka’s breasts, slid out to brush the sides. Her thumbs teased Aneka’s nipples, and this time the moan was louder and Aneka’s eyes slid closed.

‘I’d say you’re fully functional,’ Ella whispered, ‘but we should test your systems thoroughly.’ Aneka let out a gasp as she felt Ella’s lips close around her left nipple, the pressure as Ella sucked sent a tingle through her. A small, pointy tongue toyed with the engorged nub. If anything, it seemed like Aneka’s new flesh was more sensitive than her old skin had been. Her breath stuttered in her throat as electricity burned in from her nipple and then down between her thighs. She felt herself dampening down there and heard herself moan, and felt a little ashamed of herself. It should not have been this easy to get between her legs, but here she was opening them for Ella like a tart. When the redhead’s fingers pressed firmly against the plastic covering Aneka’s sex, she knew she was lost.

‘Get up,’ Ella said, her voice thick with lust, ‘I want you naked. I can’t taste you through that suit.’

Aneka got to her feet and the suit was pulled down from her waist, over her hips, down her thighs. Ella’s hands gripped her arms, turning her and pushing her down. Her back hit the bed and she felt Ella’s hands parting her legs, and then Ella’s hot tongue was snaking between Aneka’s labia. It had been a while since anything which did not need batteries had been there, even excluding a thousand years of enforced celibacy; Aneka let out a groan of sudden need and leaned forward, her right hand wrapping into Ella’s hair and pressing her mouth in hard. Ella seemed to be happy enough with this turn of events, eager even. Her tongue began lapping, circling, flicking, her lips locked over Aneka’s clitoris and she sucked.

It did not seem to take long, maybe two or three minutes. Aneka doubted she had ever come so fast in her life, but come she did. It felt like an orgasm: the rising pressure deep inside her groin, the electric tension which seemed to burn through her clitoris and fill her, the explosion of white light which seemed to tear apart her mind and body. All of it felt just like she remembered, but more intense. She lay panting on the bed, not sure when she had fallen back down again, embarrassingly aware that she did not need to pant or feel the afterglow of pleasure she was feeling.

‘You taste…’ Aneka looked down at the woman still squatting between her legs; Ella was licking her lips and looking the way someone did when they were trying to think of words to describe a fine wine, but her voice still had a huskiness to it. ‘You’re sweet and musky at the same time. Heady. I like it, and you certainly seem to be… equipped.’

Aneka pulled herself upright in one smooth move and leaned forward, her shoulder dropping, and she brought her head down to look Ella in the eyes. Ella gave a sudden gasp, her eyes widening, as Aneka slid two fingers smoothly into her. ‘I think,’ Aneka said, her voice husky, ‘that we can’t call it until I’ve got you off too.’ Her fingers curled and began to circle; apparently she had hit the right spot since Ella whimpered softly.

‘I’m… not your… first girl… then,’ Ella panted.

Aneka lowered her other hand to seek out Ella’s clitoris with a finger. ‘Not the first, no.’ Finding the swollen nub, Aneka began to flick at it. It seemed more pronounced than usual for a human, and the result of playing with it was surprising: Ella’s muscles began to pulse around Aneka’s fingers. After a minute or two, the pulsing had synchronised into rhythmic waves and Ella was practically humping Aneka’s hand. What this did to a man Aneka could only guess, but she suspected a porn star would have had trouble holding on with the redhead’s vagina working him like that. As it was, Ella’s back arched, thrusting her chest out at Aneka a minute or two later, and suddenly she was screaming out yelps of release as her body shook and danced at the end of Aneka’s arms.

Ella slumped back onto the deck as Aneka let go and climbed to her feet, grinning. Aneka reached for the rail along the edge of the upper bunk and Ella said, ‘What are you doing? You don’t think you’re finished yet, do you?’

Aneka reached down a hand, fingers still slick from Ella’s sex. ‘Get up then. I’m not fucking you on the cabin floor.’

‘As long as you’re fucking me, you can do it anywhere you like.’

14.6.523 FSC.

Aneka lay in silence, her eyes closed, and watched text stream over the inside of her eyelids. Her various systems made themselves known as she awoke, displaying diagnostics and status reports. She figured the system ran through the same routine every morning and, from what she was seeing, there was nothing to worry about. So she lay still, Ella still spooned against her back, and watched the reports in the hope that it might tell her more about her new body.

Radio? No sooner had she thought it than a display appeared in her vision field. The little window displayed a rapidly shifting frequency value and flashing text proclaimed ‘Scanning for transmissions…’ It stopped after a minute or so and the message changed. ‘Data network detected… Negotiating…’ Then, ‘Connected,’ and another window opened giving options for systems she could connect to. Probably not a great way to gain trust. The windows vanished with that thought and she went back to watching the reports.

Everything seemed to be ‘optimal,’ though her fusion power cell required additional liquid for reprocessing, apparently. Did that mean ‘drink more water?’ Her ‘nutrient reserve’ was at twenty per cent too, so maybe food and water soon would be a good idea.

She was considering breakfast when Ella indicated that she was now awake by running her fingers over Aneka’s breast and teasing her nipple into life. Aneka let out a soft moan. ‘Didn’t you get enough of that last night?’

‘No. Did I wake you?’ The fingers kept teasing and Aneka started to squirm.

‘No, I woke up ten minutes, thirteen seconds ago.’

‘So exact…’ There was that husky thickness in her voice again.

‘I’ve been watching my diagnostic displays, and there’s a little clock just popped up showing ship time, system up time, and recent active time, which I figure is how long I’ve been awake.’

‘Huh. I just have the time.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Oh… I thought you might have noticed. My eyes are artificial. I lost them to an infection when I was twelve. I was blind for six years until they were replaced. I’m a cyborg. Not anything like you, but enough that I get some of the same looks when people know.’ The teasing fingers drifted down over Aneka’s taut stomach.

‘Th-that explains why you’re, oh-mmm, not bothered about…’ She drifted off as Ella found her clit.

‘I’m not so bothered anyway. I find differences fascinating and I love fucking.’

‘N-no kidding.’

~~~

‘Is there something around here I can actually help with?’ Aneka asked as the crew sat around the table in the mess eating breakfast. She had poured herself a cup of coffee, or what passed for coffee, before she remembered there was no point, or maybe her body was trying to insist on that fluid intake. She had tried it anyway. Her body was, it seemed, quite capable of eating and drinking, but she made a note that the coffee was not worth doing it for.

Bashford looked up from his cereal bowl. ‘We want to take you over to the Xinti ship. There are definitely some artefacts over there you can identify for us.’

‘And exposure to that environment may bring back some of your memories,’ Gilroy added.

Aneka looked between them. ‘You discussed this last night after Ella dragged me off.’

‘Team decision,’ Drake supplied. ‘Ultimately, they needed my permission since I’m in charge of safety on the ship. Bash and Monkey will be armed, just in case there is a problem.’

‘We would be anyway,’ Bashford said, softening the statement. ‘You never know what you’ll find on a ship like this.’

Aneka nodded. ‘At least you won’t need to teach me how to use a vacuum suit.’

‘We will. You’re safe enough in a decompression accident, but we don’t think you’ll handle exposure to the environment out there for very long.’

‘The temperature outside is close to Absolute Zero,’ Monkey put in.

‘And you need to breathe,’ Ella added.

A window appeared in Aneka’s vision field. Current oxygen reserve under normal conditions: 2:40 hours. ‘I need to breathe most of the time,’ Aneka said.

~~~

The suit felt as tight as it looked and the helmet, a compact model with oxygen tanks and carbon dioxide scrubbers built in, was sort of claustrophobic. They had fabricated both specifically for her and she had been a little surprised at how easy it was to operate the equipment. The suit had been very easy to get into; it had not been close-fitting until she had sealed it, then it had tightened instantly, closing around her body to press firmly against her skin. The seal was some miraculous technology called setaestrip, a nanotech version of Velcro, as far as she could tell, but giving a seal so tight air did not escape. The same material, she now realised, closed her leotard. The helmet had locked on with a similar seal, and now she was standing in the Garnet Hyde’s airlock as the air was pumped out.

Bashford, Monkey, and Ella were in the airlock with her. The EVA suits were as form-fitting as the shipsuits, but opaque, made from some form of close-weave ballistic cloth which covered over the shipsuit, providing additional support and protection. Basically, the suits were tight enough to maintain pressure on the body without having to hold an atmosphere of air. The helmets and gloves and a backpack environmental system completed the outfit, providing flexible vacuum protection, and also a fair degree of resilience to damage from other sources. Bashford had told Aneka that the suits could handle light weapons fire. Aneka could have wished for body armour that good in Iraq.

The outer door opened and the team proceeded across to the derelict. The temporary airlock on the far side was still in place, but mainly to ensure nothing escaped from the ship by accident. There was also a high-tensile line strung between the two ships, and this was what they used to cross the gap. Bashford took the lead with Aneka behind him.

‘Once everyone’s inside, we’ll seal the lock before we go deeper,’ Bashford said. His voice sounded to Aneka as though it was in her ears, but she was using the radio embedded somewhere in her chest. The radio system was rigged to pipe into her mind through the same sort of ‘interface’ as sound usually did. Thinking about it, the in-vision displays she had been seeing were the same. It was as if the Xinti engineers had gone out of their way to let her perceive her body as normal, with added extras.

‘Got that,’ Aneka replied. Her mouth sounded the words, but she supposed her computer relayed them through the radio direct. She decided to try not to think about it: it would probably give her a headache. Then she found herself thinking that she was probably not capable of having headaches anymore. Of course, if she could have orgasms, why not headaches? Give up while you’re ahead, Aneka. You’ll go all Blue Screen of Death again…

The inside of her first alien ship was a little disappointing. Smooth walls, blackened in places by the plasma discharge which had doomed her to float in space for a millennium. The corridor on the inside, now without its floating body, was not a whole lot better: a tall, wide, curving corridor which seemed to encircle the whole ship. ‘Were they really this big, or did they just have inadequacy issues?’ she asked as they moved around toward the room she had been found in.

‘They built bodies for their needs, remember,’ Ella replied. ‘Some of them were pretty big.’

‘Their combat chassis were big,’ Monkey said. ‘Huge things, heavily armoured. They used weapons that would be tripod-mounted if a human was using them, huge knives. Not something you’d want to meet.’

Yes I would. Aneka glanced back toward the younger man. Except that she had to stop thinking of him like that. He was almost forty, which was still young for the lifespan of the average Human… the average Jenlay now, but ten years older than Aneka had been. She had been horrified to discover that Ella was seventy-two: she looked far less than thirty.

She turned back to discover that they had arrived at the storage room. ‘We thought you could start by telling us what all of this stuff is,’ Ella said. ‘It seems to be yours.’

Aneka floated into the room. The first thing she saw were the racks and the equipment on them. It did, indeed, seem to be the stuff her team and the hostages had had with them when they were taken. She was about to start going through it when she noticed the machine at one end of the room. A huge, tank-like mechanism, the transparent doorway now open to vacuum since they had had to cut her free of it. She could see restraints of some sort within, designed to hold a humanoid body upright within the tube.

‘That’s where we found you,’ Ella confirmed. ‘It’s a nanostasis rig. They’re more stable than cryogenic systems, use less power.’

‘Strung up like a pervert’s slab of meat in a freezer,’ Aneka replied.

‘We’ve no evidence that Xinti showed any interest in cross-species sex. Or in sex.’

‘Huh.’ Aneka returned her attention to the shelves. ‘For someone uninterested in sex, they sure went to a lot of trouble to make sure I could have it.’ Her hands drifted over clothing. All of it had been carefully folded, but it had been cut off the bodies it had belonged to. ‘Combat fatigues, body armour, a pair of jeans. One of the hostages must’ve been wearing those.’ She turned to another rack. ‘Weapons.’ She glanced around at Bashford. ‘After a thousand years in space I doubt the propellant works, so you’ve no need to worry. There should be three MP-fives, two rifles, a grenade launcher. Might be wise to be careful with that and the ammo. The explosives could be unstable. It’s basically a nitrocellulose powder.’

Bashford could be seen blanching, even through his helmet faceplate. ‘Get a couple of the armoured containers over, Monkey,’ he said. The younger facilitator nodded, the action almost lost in his helmet.

‘Field radios,’ Aneka went on. ‘These…’ She paused over a tray containing a couple of wallets, a few bits of jewellery, some ID badges. ‘Personal effects.’ Reaching in, she lifted out a gold ring. ‘Quinn’s wedding ring. I went to the wedding. He’d been married for six months when… Nice girl. He met her on leave in New York and married her three months later. Kind of fast, but in our line of work you didn’t get to meet people that much. People you’d give the time of day to anyway.’ She placed the ring back in the tray where it wobbled in the zero gravity, and then pulled out a wallet, unfolding it and taking out a desiccated dollar bill. It crumbled in her fingers. ‘I guess dollars aren’t exactly legal currency anymore anyway.’ It was all kind of depressing.

‘You still used physical money?’ Ella asked.

‘A lot of transactions were electronic, but folding money was more useful in a place like Iraq. Or for buying a hot dog on a street corner for that matter.’ She spotted another tray and carefully lifted something out of it. ‘The bra I was wearing when they grabbed me. Oh, and my knickers. There doesn’t seem much call for underwear now either.’

‘Of course there is,’ Ella replied, giggling, though it came through a little funny over the radio. ‘On planets anyway.’

‘People still have a taste for flimsy undergarments under the right circumstances,’ Bashford commented.

Aneka looked at the sports bra she was holding. ‘Well, this was for support, which I don’t appear to need anymore. You could just about bounce bullets off it.’

‘Yeah,’ Monkey said, ‘you really don’t need it now.’ He appeared to consider the comment and then blushed. Aneka was rather pleased; maybe being viewed as a sex object was not how she wished to be perceived, but it was better than being viewed as a threat.

‘Thank you,’ Aneka said to him, and then floated across to the last of the racks and frowned. ‘This wasn’t ours…’ She opened a case and found herself looking at a bulky pistol. Without really thinking about it, she lifted the weapon out of its padded container. ‘I don’t recognise this at all, but… I seem to know how to use it.’ She looked around to see Bashford and Monkey with their hands on their pistols. She turned the gun around to show them the rear where there was an empty slot over the handgrip. ‘No power cell. It’s useless.’

‘That’s a blaster pistol of some sort,’ Bashford said. ‘It fires high-energy electrons, probably. Like ours. It looks like it was designed for a human hand. Yours, perhaps.’

‘Why would they be providing weapons for me?’ She flipped open another case and found what looked like a dozen power cells for the gun in some sort of charger rig. The charge indicators on the cells suggested they were dead. A third case revealed a combat knife which she lifted out and twirled in her hand. ‘This feels heavier than it looks. Some sort of high-density material? Why?’

‘Maybe they wanted you to assassinate someone,’ Monkey suggested.

‘Then why not give me a laser rifle or something? Dalton was our sniper. He could put a bullet through a man’s eye at a thousand yards. I was good, but he’d have been the choice for assassination.’

‘We don’t know much about what the Xinti were doing on Earth before the war started,’ Ella said. ‘I doubt there was anyone there worth assassinating. Considering that they did such a good job building a natural-looking body, Gillian and I think you were supposed to be an information gatherer. The weapons were probably just asset protection.’

Aneka frowned: it made some sense. She packed the weapons away in their cases. ‘They taught me how to use that pistol. I must have been conscious at least some of the time.’

‘No, there are techniques for implanting skills.’ Ella was suddenly behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. ‘I don’t think you were going back to Earth to kill people. I think, with the body you have, you’d have done something to us by now.’

‘Emotive as Ella is,’ Bashford said dryly, ‘she has a point. If you know what that pistol can do, you know what these ones can do. Your computer should know, even if you don’t, that we would have a real problem stopping you if you went wild on us.’

Aneka raised an eyebrow. Unbidden, a tactical display appeared in her field of view indicating optimal attack strategies and the probability that she would sustain unacceptable damage initiating that attack. The probability was very low. ‘Thanks for trusting me with that. You’re right. You don’t stand a chance.’ She dismissed the display. ‘None of this makes sense. It’s like… like I wasn’t finished.’ She turned her head toward the door. ‘I think we should look in one of the central rooms.’

Ella frowned at her through her visor. ‘A memory?’

‘A feeling.’ She pushed off toward the door, using the walls to move around toward the front of the ship a few metres before she stopped, looking at a large, heavy door on the inner wall. ‘Here. Can we open this?’

It took three of them. Bashford and Monkey wedged pry bars into the seam until Aneka could get her fingers into the gap and pull. The resistance was purely age, corrosion in the mechanism. The power holding the doors shut had failed long ago, but they still had a lot of mass and no lubrication. On the other hand, Aneka’s arms were like a couple of cranes shifting the weight and she discovered that her muscles did not tire, did not give up, they just kept applying pressure. After a half-minute of hard effort, the resistance gave and the doors jolted open leaving her spinning slowly head over heels as her momentum carried her into the room.

It appeared to be a laboratory of some sort, or an operating theatre. The centrepiece was an X-shaped table with clamps designed to hold a victim down on it. Machines which looked like torture equipment more than scientific instruments surrounded the table. Floating above it, obviously dead, was a body. Humanoid, badly desiccated, with long fingers, digitigrade, three-toed legs, and a bony skull, the eyes sunken to pits by years of dehydration.

Aneka drifted slowly toward the ceiling, her gaze on the table. She had seen this before. She knew what had happened there. She remembered…

Deep Space, May 30th, 2011.

Awareness slowly permeated Aneka’s mind, followed rapidly by discomfort. She blinked and pulled her head up from where it was hanging on her neck, and found herself in Hell.

Small robots, about the size of a basketball, floated in the air around her. The room itself looked like something out of one of the science-fiction films her brother was so fond of. And like a bad 1950s B-movie, she was strapped to an X-shaped frame in the middle of the room, stark naked. Maybe not a ’50s movie, maybe a more recent spoof porn version of a B-movie. Four long, mechanical, tentacle-like arms were arranged around the table, two ending in what Aneka thought were cameras: they were certainly looking down at her, examining her. The other two arms were considerably more worrying, despite the fact the cameras had sharp-looking pincers arranged around them. One arm had a syringe on the end, the other a circular saw.

Light came from a couple of spotlights and a large, blue, glowing dome in the ceiling, but the robots seemed to have no trouble with the relatively dim lighting. They buzzed around her making noises which sounded like static every so often. It almost sounded like they were speaking to each other. Some sort of compressed vocal system, like the burst radio transmissions the military used to make detection harder.

She leaned back and saw the thing standing there. Mottled, dark grey skin, digitigrade legs with three-toed feet, long fingers, and a skull that had back-swept spikes and ridges, a long, pointed chin, no obvious lips, and dark eyes. ‘What the Hell’s going on?’ Aneka yelled at it. ‘Let me out of this thing! Where are the rest of my team?’ The figure turned away making another burst of sound. ‘Answer me, damn it!’ The only answer she got came in the form of a sharp pain as the syringe sank into her left thigh and began pumping something into her bloodstream. ‘What are you doing? Let me out of this…’ Her voice trailed off as the numbness started to spread through her lower body. ‘Please, what do you want?’ Whatever the drug was, it was fast-acting. Her entire body was numb within seconds, but she could still move to some extent.

Leaning her head back, she found the figure standing over her, bending down to look at her face. ‘Please?’ she said, her voice soft, pleading, but without hope.

Then she heard the circular saw starting up. She could feel nothing aside from a little vibration as it starting cutting into her flesh, but she started screaming anyway.

January 19th, 2012

She was pretty sure she should be dead, but she was awake and aware… and immobile. And she could hear voices around her. They sounded artificial, a metallic twang sounded with each voice as though she were hearing the sound through a slightly dodgy speaker.

‘Systems check shows all functions active.’

‘Voluntary systems activation in ten seconds.’

‘Check its bonds. We don’t want it moving about until the conditioning is complete.’

‘All anchor points locked.’

Aneka opened her eyes. She recognised the blue dome above her, the room, the camera arms sweeping over her. The other two arms were nowhere to be seen for which she was thankful, but she remembered the saw cutting into her stomach and knew she could not have survived it, so how was she alive?

One of the figures she had seen last time floated closer. There were others there this time. She heard the static noise, but this time it resolved itself into a voice. ‘Your voluntary functions will be activating… now. Move your fingers.’ She felt her hands flex. ‘Excellent. Further motive system checks will be made following conditioning.’

‘Conditioning?’ Her voice sounded odd: she put it down to the angle her head was at and the effects of whatever drugs she had been given.

‘Conditioning, training, acclimatisation to your status.’

It was not really an answer. ‘Where are the rest of my team?’

‘Team? The other subjects. We required only one survey unit. The others were analysed and the waste material disposed of.’ The alien turned away, moving to a console set against the wall. ‘Your species is remarkably lacking in resilience. Relatively minor changes in conditions proved fatal to your weak structures. We have given you a more suitable shell to complete your mission.’

She lifted her head, looking down at her naked body. She was spread-eagled on the table, as before, and there seemed to be no difference… except that her breasts seemed firmer and a little more pointed than before. Her fringe fell forward and she saw white. Her hair was white! What was that, shock?

‘Your mind has been transplanted into a synthetic shell,’ the voice said. ‘We have mimicked your original body, though we made certain changes which we believe will make you more appealing to the others of your species. Analysis of your global network and media sources has indicated that sex is an important aspect of your society.’

Great, they’ve given me a boob job because they’ve been reading porn on the internet. Wait… ‘What do you mean, “synthetic shell?”’

Apparently it was tired of answering questions. ‘You will be implanted back into your primitive society. You will observe, record, and provide insight. Periodically, one of our ships will return to collect the data you have stored. Your shell is capable of operating for extended periods in any conditions you might find yourself in. It is fully armoured and self-repairing. We expect long and effective service from you.’

Aneka considered this for a fraction of a second before expressing her opinion. ‘Fuck off.’

‘Begin the conditioning process.’

~~~

She was not sure how long the weird sounds and lights had been working on her. There had been a voice constantly droning on behind the noise and she was sure that it was supposed to be training her to do whatever these ‘Xinti’ wanted. She had used every trick she knew from classes on resisting interrogation to keep her mind from sinking into whatever state they were aiming for and she thought she had succeeded, but she was not sure until it all stopped and she heard the voices again.

‘It is resisting to a greater degree than projected. Why has the system been shut down?’

‘An instability has been detected in the primary reactor. Power has been cut back until this can be resolved.’

‘A prolonged gap in conditioning may result in greater reinforcement of negative thought patterns. Resistance may increase during future sessions.’

‘Power will be restored in eight-point-three cycles.’

There was actually a tone of annoyance in the reply. ‘Unacceptable. Have the subject placed in stasis until we can resume.’

‘Initiating system shutdown.’

Aneka was about to say something when everything went black.

FScV Garnet Hyde, 14.6.523 FSC.

‘So the reactor failure stopped them from completing the conditioning they had planned,’ Gilroy said. They were gathered around the mess room table again. Aneka was perched on a chair with her knees pulled up under her chin.

‘Apparently. I assume their “instability” was a little more serious than they thought.’

‘Well, that’s good, isn’t it?’ Ella said, sounding uncertain, but cautiously enthusiastic.

‘I guess,’ Aneka replied. ‘I remember a lot more. Not everything, I think. There are big gaps. Well, I think there are big gaps. They used my team as lab rats to test human limits. Considering what they did to me, I can’t imagine the others had a nice death. I’m guessing the drug they gave me was to avoid me dying from shock while they chopped me into parts. I’m guessing they killed one of us too quickly before they got to me.’ She felt exhausted, even though she knew she could not be. Her gaze shifted to Patton who looked almost the way she felt. The young pilot was gripping Drake’s arm as though she was frightened to let go.

‘They cut you up,’ Patton breathed, ‘while you were alive?’

‘That is so not fridgy,’ Ella breathed.

‘Yeah, but don’t go trusting me too much yet. Their conditioning may have worked better than they thought. I could be lying…’

Patton shook her head. ‘It didn’t, you’re not.’ She got to her feet. ‘Excuse me, I have to… go and throw up.’

‘Shannon has some mild psionic talents,’ Drake said when his lieutenant had gone. ‘She was cool toward you as much as anything because she wasn’t getting any feeling from you. She still isn’t, of course, but her talent has made her quite a good psychologist and she clearly believes you. She has quite a vivid, empathic imagination too…’

‘If I’d known, I’d have thought noisier things.’

Drake chuckled. ‘You may have a human mind in there, but it’s still a digital emulation of one. She couldn’t hear you if she wanted to. And, frankly, she doesn’t really want to with most people, but she can’t stop it.’

‘She told me I’m like having a really noisy neighbour in the apartment next door,’ Ella said. ‘I’ve tried being quieter, but…’

‘You’re a very open person, Ella,’ Gilroy said. ‘It’s part of your charm.’ Her attention returned to Aneka. ‘Now that you have some idea of who you are, I think we should start concentrating on teaching you where you are now, and perhaps we can start some interviews about the environment you lived in back then. We have very little information on Old Earth, especially pre-spaceflight.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Sure, Doc. I need to start fitting in sooner or later.’

15.6.523 FSC.

Aneka sagged onto Ella’s bunk with a sigh. Ella was over on the Xinti ship, working with Bashford and Monkey, so there was time for a break without the worry that the little nympho would turn up and turn rest into recreation. Not that Aneka minded the sex: she had gone without for a thousand years so she figured she had some catching up to do, but after several hours of ‘socialisation,’ Aneka was feeling as though she had just been through an SAS training course.

They had gone through some fairly basic history first. How the Lorenti Federation had been founded by the Jenlay, Herosians, and Torem in an attempt to ensure that nothing like the Xinti War ever happened again. A League of Nations or United Nations, except with alien races and spread over dozens of star systems, and about as effective. The Federation was based primarily on trade and cultural exchange, and named for the Jenlay colony which happened to be at the junction between the three races’ respective areas and so was selected for the treaty signing, Lorenti IV. In five hundred and twenty-odd years, the cultural exchange part had gone from a high-minded ideal to something which happened when individuals wanted it. The mutual protection agreement still existed, but the Federal Navy was largely staffed by Jenlay; the other races kept their own ships and policed their own stars. The one main thing which kept the Federation going was trade and the fear that if they broke up there would be a war which would end everyone.

There were only the three known, advanced, races in the galaxy. Somehow she had expected more, but Gilroy had explained that complex life was just not that common. There were huge numbers of worlds with life. Pretty much anywhere where life could evolve, it did. Far fewer worlds had something larger than a microbe, and very few of those had truly complex life. The conditions which produced intelligent species were just too rare. You needed an odd combination of stability and disruption which happened in relatively few places. Of course, there had been a fourth race, the Xinti, and there was some evidence of other species reaching the stars in the past, but they were believed to all be extinct. The Herosians, in particular, spent as much resource as they could spare ensuring that the Xinti remained part of history, and a poorly understood one at that.

Humans had evolved over the last millennium, they really did deserve a new name, and Aneka was not entirely sure how she was going to fit into the society they had created. There were worlds where things had changed less, in fact Ella had grown up on one, but in the core regions, the Jenlay had been manipulating their genomes and weeding out weaknesses for generations. Genetic defects were unheard of and antisocial psychological traits were almost non-existent. People lived to be two hundred years old easily, often almost three hundred, so various social norms from Aneka’s time were far less common. Marriages were a thing of the past because they just did not last for that length of time usually. People would share their lives with someone and part when the relationship became stale. The majority of people could get whatever they wanted, so crime was far less common. You worked at what you were good at for as long as you wished, and could get training to do something else without anyone thinking less of you. Not wanting to do anything was frowned upon, but changing careers was a given. Even politicians came to the role due to having an aptitude for diplomacy and administration; there were no elections, for which Aneka was thankful. With diseases a mild irritation, pregnancy a purely optional condition, and marriage a historic footnote, sex had become something people did for recreation, which explained Ella a lot.

Aneka was just not sure she would have qualified as one of the Jenlay, even if she had still had her original body. And, while there was a military, she was essentially useless to it. She would need years of training to join, and she was not sure she really wanted to do so anyway. She was going to need a job and she really had no aptitude for anything, as far as she could see.

Her ruminations were disturbed by the arrival of a tired-looking Ella. The redhead walked in and began undressing immediately, and Aneka wondered whether she should strip too to save time. Ella, however, had other things on her mind.

‘I need a shower,’ she moaned as she stepped out of her suit. ‘I feel like my entire body is covered in slime.’

‘It’s not.’

Ella padded into the shower cubicle and the water started running. ‘How did you do with Gillian?’

Aneka rolled off the bed and moved over to the chair so that she could talk easier. ‘I think I’ve got future shock or something. It’s a lot to take in. I think I understand some of it better, but I doubt I’ll really get it until I’m doing it.’

Ella’s giggle sounded as though it had bubbles in it. ‘I’ve got fifteen minutes before lunch, we can practise.’

Aneka grinned, even if Ella could not see it. ‘Not that kind of “do it.” Not that I’d mind the stress relief. But what am I going to do for a job? I’ve got to do something for money, and anyway I’ll go nuts sitting around doing nothing. I’m an active person.’

The water stopped and Ella emerged from the shower. She crossed the space to Aneka and pushed her small, high breasts into Aneka’s face. ‘Lick the water off,’ she commanded. Aneka giggled, but she started licking. ‘Mmm. Bash said he might, oh, be able to find you work.’

‘Bash did?’

‘Yes, keep li–, oh yes…’

~~~

‘I suspect your training should be adaptable to being a facilitator,’ Bashford said. ‘The basic remit is getting people in safely, assisting with the physical aspects of the operation, security, and extraction. You’ll need to get caught up on the technology, of course, but it’s not as hard as all that and you do have a significant advantage.’

‘I do?’ Aneka replied. She took a drink of what she had been told was orange juice, though it tasted like banana.

‘Yes. We’re halfway through a two-hundred-parsec trip to an archaeological site Gillian wants to investigate. The ship woke us up from cold sleep when it detected the derelict and we’ll be going back to sleep when we’ve finished here. If you stay awake, that gives you a hundred days to catch up and do the qualification exam.’

‘Okay,’ Aneka said, nodding. ‘A hundred days on my own studying technology and procedures. I can do that.’

‘You won’t be alone,’ Drake said. ‘Regulations require one registered crew member be awake when any passenger is awake. And someone would have my head anyway if they heard I’d let a Xinti combat robot walk around here alone. We’ll take shifts.’

Bashford nodded. ‘I’ll take the first, get you started on the courses.’

‘I’ve also taken the liberty of sorting out a virtual reality education program,’ Gilroy said, ‘which should be able to catch you up on technology, social law, that kind of thing. It can operate while you’re sleeping, or offline, or whatever the term should be, to maximise your education time.’

‘Right,’ Aneka said. ‘So, a hundred days of learning so hard my head will explode. Sounds like fun.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Ella said. ‘It’ll be fun. I’ll do a shift and…’

‘Oh no,’ Bashford said. ‘If you’re awake and alone with her, she’ll get no work done at all.’

Ella pouted.

19.6.523 FSC.

It was the first time Aneka had been up on the flight deck and she was rather pleased that Drake and Patton trusted her enough to let her in there. Everyone was there, actually, since it was the best way to watch the arrival of the Federation Recovery Vehicle Argent Sky. Aneka had to admit it was worth seeing.

The thing was huge, an enormous, open structure designed to surround a stricken vessel, lock onto it, and then move it at speed. It had overrated engines to handle the extra load. It could actually warp space better than the Garnet Hyde since it was designed to be used for emergencies. Aneka did not understand the whole ‘warping space’ thing, but she could get behind the idea that the Argent Sky was faster.

As they watched, the vast ship slid into place around the Xinti ship and extended grappling arms to lock it in place. Bashford and Monkey, with Aneka helping, had spent the last day fitting a more permanent seal over the hull breach to ready it for transport. Everything was ready to go and tomorrow most of the crew would be going into cold sleep. Before that, however, a couple of the crew from the Argent Sky were coming over for a visit.

Aneka heard the sound of laughter from the mess as she approached the door. The whole ‘you won’t be allowed to walk around alone’ thing had sort of died a death since Patton had proclaimed her safe too. Actually, the entire crew seemed to trust her a lot more, and more easily than she had expected. The only person who viewed her with any degree of distrust was Monkey, and that had an odd sort of hint to it. She caught him looking at her with pretty obvious desire in his eyes, but he always looked away quickly when he noticed she had seen him, and he did not talk to her much unless he had to. He was, at least, no longer actively distrustful.

Apparently, their visitors were known to the crew. Her eyes flicked around the room as she stepped in, her computer highlighting and recording the new faces. The computer had been making itself known more since she had regained her memory of her capture and the augmented reality system was one of the features it was making itself known with: when she got names to go with the faces, the computer would connect the two and, if she met them again, remind her who they were.

Standing near Drake was a tall, attractive woman who looked a little older than him, but was still lithe and fit. She filled out her shipsuit very well, had dark brown eyes and short, auburn hair, and had the bearing of someone used to giving commands and having them obeyed. Aneka took in the way she was standing closer to Drake than was necessary, the casual way that he rested a hand on her shoulder: they had past history.

The second newcomer was a very handsome man with wild, black hair and rugged features. His body was all long muscle and there was a distinctly large bulge in his shipsuit, which might have explained why Ella was almost hanging around his shoulders, but there seemed to be familiarity there too. An ex maybe? She certainly wants him.

Drake looked up with a smile. ‘Aneka, this is Captain Janice Beltran of the FReV Argent Sky. They brought over some replacement supplies for the ones we used surveying the ship, and some rather nice brandy, if you’d like a glass.’ He indicated a bottle in the middle of the table which still had a glass beside it. Well, what the Hell. Aneka decided she would have a drink, but there were formalities to take care of. She walked around the table and offered her hand to Beltran.

‘Captain. Pleased to meet you.’

The woman took her hand and shook it firmly, but there was just a hint of hesitancy about the action. ‘Miss Jansen. I’ve been hearing about you. Doctor Gilroy seems to think you’re going to be the greatest pre-history reference anyone’s ever found.’

Aneka smiled. ‘I’m not sure I’m quite that useful.’

‘Still, she’s persuaded the University to put you under contract. I brought the paperwork.’

Aneka looked around at Gilroy. ‘You’re being employed as a consultant on Old Earth history,’ the doctor said. ‘Assuming you pass your qualification exam, you’ll also be under contract as a facilitator to work alongside Bash and Monkey. You should read it over before signing.’

‘The pay’s good,’ Bashford commented, which got another laugh. Aneka smiled and poured herself some brandy, wondering if she could get drunk.

Ella was waving her over rather enthusiastically, so she wandered around to where the redhead had now sat down beside her friend. Aneka sat down beside her and Ella’s free hand, the right one, which was stroking over the man’s forearm, moved immediately to rest on Aneka’s thigh. ‘This is Paul, Paul Norton. We were an item for a couple of years when I first started at the University.’

‘Then I got the position on the Argent Sky,’ Norton added. ‘Too big an opportunity to miss.’

Aneka smiled, trying not to make it look strained, and offered Norton her hand. ‘Paul, pleased to meet you.’ He reached out to shake her hand and then slipped his arm around Ella’s waist. The little nymphomaniac shivered slightly, her smile brightening. The hand on Aneka’s thigh began to stroke gently.

‘That’s a very nice… outfit you’ve got there,’ Norton added, though the way his eyes scanned over her suggested he was complimenting what was under the plastic. Ella’s fingers shifted to stroke over Aneka’s inner thigh.

Could she be any more damn transparent? Aneka took a drink and forced herself to keep the grimace off her face. Doesn’t anything taste right here? ‘Thank you, Paul. I needed something to wear and I don’t need a shipsuit.’

Norton nodded. ‘Ella’s been telling me all about you. She’s very enthusiastic.’

Aneka laughed. ‘Always, as far as I can tell.’

‘Ha! Yeah, there is that.’

Ella’s fingers were shifting upward by now and from the way her back was arching, Norton’s hand was doing something similar along her spine. The direction this was going seemed obvious, but Aneka was not quite sure she was ready for that level of interaction with future society.

‘Paul and the captain are staying over tonight,’ Ella said. ‘We’ve all got long trips ahead of us. A little R and R seems like a good idea.’ Her fingers arrived at the join of Aneka’s legs, brushed over the thin plastic, pressed a little harder…

Aneka smiled, knowing that this time it did look strained and not really caring. ‘That’s great. Look, I’m a bit tired and I have that contract to read over. I’ll… leave you to it and I’ll see you in the morning.’ She got to her feet and started for the door. Ella’s expression was a weird mixture of desire, concern, and confusion: she really could not understand what was happening, which was just like her.

‘I’ll come with you and sort out that document for you,’ Patton said, rising from her seat beside Drake and following. ‘We’ll need to set you up a witnessed signature anyway.’ It sounded suspiciously like an excuse; her body language had been a little tight and she probably wanted out of the room too. When they were out of the mess she added, ‘We can use the terminal in my room.’

Patton’s room looked like one which rarely got used. It was too neat for one thing, and the bed was pristine. The owner of the room went straight to her desk, signed in, and began running software. The ‘signature’ was electronic, a key pair generated by the ship’s computer. The public and private keys were dumped off into files with the private one filed away for Aneka’s eyes only. Patton attached her own signature to the public key file to verify that Aneka was who she said she was, and then filed it with the ship’s computer.

‘They’ll take the encrypted registration file back to New Earth with them,’ Patton explained as she tapped her way through the computer’s file system. ‘It gets registered there with Federal Administration and you’ll officially exist. Normally, the private key is then implanted into our idents, but you can probably just store it in your computer for now. Don’t forget to secure-delete it from the ship’s computer afterward. Oh, I’ve marked your home location as the University. I doubt anyone will be messaging you, but if they do the messages will be held there until you can pick them up.’ She tapped a few keys and a new window appeared. ‘And this is the contract they want you to look over. I’m going to take a shower. You read it through, and I’ll show you how to sign it when you’re done.’

The contract was several pages of legalese. Somehow Aneka had hoped society had decided that lawyers could be done away with by now, but apparently they were still very much in evidence. By the time Patton had emerged from the shower, dried herself off, and sat down on the second chair, Aneka had managed to distil everything down to its basics. She was getting paid eighty thousand credits per annum. She thought about asking Patton whether that was a lot, but figured it did not really matter, it was money. The University of New Earth got first rights to any knowledge gained from interviews with her, and she got a small royalty from any profits made from that knowledge. Conditional upon her passing all appropriate qualifying conditions, she was to be employed as a facilitator for University expeditions where required.

‘Okay,’ Aneka said, ‘I can’t find a clause which says they can take me apart to see how I work. What’s next?’

Patton got to her feet and walked over, bending over Aneka’s shoulder. Her left breast settled against Aneka’s skin as she reached over and ran her finger over the mouse pad area. ‘Just select the “apply signature” option like this, and then you’ll need to use the usual sign-in to prove it’s you and that will assure the attachment.’

Aneka followed the instructions, pressing her palm to the pad to sign in, and the computer informed her that the document was signed and authenticated. ‘Done. Can I borrow your shower? I’d imagine Ella and Paul are busy doing the horizontal tango by now.’

Patton giggled. ‘Not an expression I’ve heard before, but be my guest.’ She settled onto the lower bunk and watched as Aneka undressed and stepped into the cubicle. ‘Kind of sad really?’

‘What is?’ The water rushing over Aneka’s skin felt good. It felt like it was washing away her irritation with Ella.

‘The two of us avoiding everyone because someone else is in our partner’s bed.’

The irritation made an attempt at coming back. ‘Huh. Well, I could have been in there with them. Ella wanted me to be. I’ve just never had much fun with group sex.’

‘You haven’t?’ Patton sounded genuinely surprised.

‘Nope. First time was in Bangkok. Two friends of mine persuaded me that a foursome with them and a Thai hooker would be awesome fun. Afterward I told them they were arrogant, selfish arseholes and I never spoke to them again. I kept in touch with the hooker for a couple of years afterward though. Then she got herself stabbed by a John.’

‘Huh,’ Patton grunted. She had no idea what a ‘John’ was and was guessing at what ‘hooker’ meant, but she got the overall picture.

‘And there was a friend I visited when she was in university. We ended up in bed with her boyfriend and she got narked because he wanted to fuck me more than her.’ Aneka cut off the water and grabbed a towel as she walked out of the cubicle. ‘All in all, I’ve yet to have a good experience with more than one partner.’

Patton watched as Aneka crossed the room, her towel rubbing at her hair. ‘You need the right people. If I decide Drake’s getting any before we get back to New Earth, maybe we could arrange something. He’s good even if he did hook up with his old flame on no notice and not invite me. Or you could go pay a visit to Bash and Monkey wearing only a smile. Monkey’s a little shy at times, but the two of them could show you a good time.’ She was still watching as Aneka dried her body.

Aneka put her foot up on the edge of the bed and began drying her leg. Patton did not stop staring. ‘I think with Ella it’s mostly just that she assumed I’d want to hump the pair of them. I’m not used to a society where recreational sex is a given.’ She swapped legs, letting her thigh swing wider open as she dried it. And why am I showing myself off to Shannon anyway? ‘I’m not saying people didn’t have sex for fun, but there were still a few issues that reduced that kind of activity. Now it seems to be “fuck anyone you think looks hot.”’ She reached back and dropped her towel on the table. Her leg stayed where it was, resting on the bedframe next to Patton’s hip.

‘Yeah, speaking of which,’ Patton said. ‘I can start up the air cycle in one of the spare rooms, or you can stay here if you want… but make a choice because I either need you or my vibrator about now.’

Aneka smiled. ‘Thanks for giving me the option. Get the vibe, it’ll spice things up for both of us.’

20.6.523 FSC.

Aneka walked with Ella to the hibernation chambers. On the flight deck, Drake and Patton were busy setting the flight plan to their ultimate destination, Bashford was setting things up for Aneka’s courses, and the remaining crew were already in their capsules. Cold sleep was not exactly suspended animation, from what Aneka had been told. The body was drugged and fed with chemicals which prevented the formation of ice crystals, and then chilled down to sub-zero temperatures to slow body processes. It sounded distinctly unpleasant to Aneka, but she was not doing it.

‘We’ll all be waking up about five days before arrival,’ Ella said. ‘To do prep work and stuff.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka said.

‘I could, um, get up earlier to help you with your exams, if you’d like?’

‘Sure, why wouldn’t I?’

‘Well, maybe because I was an inconsiderate slut last night? I was so thrilled with the idea that I could get you and Paul at the same time I didn’t think about how you might feel about it?’

‘Huh. Yes, you were rather inconsiderate, but I wouldn’t call you a slut. You get so enthusiastic about things that you don’t think anyone else will dislike the idea. I’m not used to this society yet, Ella. I’m not used to people assuming I’ll want to sleep with them, and I don’t really like threesomes that much.’

‘Oh.’ There was a pause. ‘I heard you managed to console yourself with Shannon.’

‘We bonded over our partners banging their exes. And she didn’t just assume, she gave me the option.’ For some reason, Aneka felt like being a little cruel. ‘She’s really adept with a vibrator too. I came like a train.’ Sure enough, when Aneka glanced at Ella, she looked like a kicked puppy.

‘Oh,’ Ella said. The girl was so easy to read she might as well have had her emotions printed on her forehead.

‘Look, Ella, I don’t mind if you get up early, and I’ll be sleeping in the same room so if you do get up, I’ll be there. Just so long as you’ve got over your guilt. There’s no point. You had a good time, I had a good time, what’s the problem?’

‘Yeah, I guess.’ They turned into the hibernation room and Ella walked over to one of the white tubes lying in two rows down the room. She tapped in a series of instructions on the panel on the side and the clear plastic panel on the top opened up. ‘I’m getting up early,’ she said as she climbed in. She lay down and grinned up at Aneka. ‘I’ve got a couple of vibrators too.’

Aneka laughed as the door closed over and Ella closed her eyes. There was a soft hiss as anaesthetic gas entered the chamber, and Ella’s body relaxed. Arms moved out from the top of the chamber, settling over Ella’s neck. Aneka turned back to the door rather than watch who knew what being pumped into the girl’s bloodstream. Patton was walking in.

‘Bash says to meet him in the cargo hold,’ she said as she headed for one of the empty sleep units. ‘Drake’s on his way down so you’ll be alone in ten minutes.’ She looked up from programming the unit. ‘Thanks for last night. The change was nice. Has Ella got over it?’

‘She will.’ Aneka started out and then stopped. ‘Doesn’t Drake have a first name?’

‘Mallory. He hates it. Everyone calls him Drake.’

‘Huh. See you in the morning.’

‘Yeah, morning for me anyway. Good luck.’

Aneka headed out of the hibernation suite and back toward the rear section of the ship. The cargo hold was a big, open space, largely empty since it was supposedly going to be filled with things they found at their destination. Most of it was also unpressurised, but there was a small pressurised section, and that was where she found Bashford.

He smiled at her as she walked into the room. ‘I figured we would kick off with something interesting.’ He waved at a packing case at the side of the room and she looked over at it. Three black cases were sitting on top of it and she recognised them immediately.

‘Those are the weapons cases from the Xinti ship.’

‘Uh-huh. I cleared it with Gillian. We figured they were essentially part of your personal effects and Xinti weapons are pretty well known so there’s no real scientific value. If that pistol is the kind of thing I think it is, it has a non-lethal setting so you can use it for target practice.’ He nodded down the hold to where he had set up a couple of paper targets. ‘I took the liberty of charging the power cells.’

‘Okay,’ Aneka said as she flipped open the cases. The pistol was big, but not excessively heavy. She lifted it from its case and hefted it, feeling the balance. It was slightly front-heavy until she slotted one of the large, cylindrical cells into the hole in the back. Almost immediately a display opened up in her vision field showing power remaining, range to target, and an image of the wall. She turned the pistol around and the image shifted. There was a camera mounted under the large barrel. ‘Huh,’ she grunted. ‘Heads-up display. I’ve got picture-in-picture aiming.’

‘A lot of modern weapons have a system like that. Most people have to wear something to display it on.’

Aneka gave him a grin and turned her attention back to the display. There was, indeed, a power setting, currently showing as ‘lethal.’ A thought switched it to ‘pacify.’ She aimed down the hold, lined up one of the targets in her sights, and pulled the trigger. A pulse of energy burst out from the muzzle and hit the target dead centre. There was a sharp electrostatic ripping sound and the paper target shredded.

‘Holy shit!’ Aneka exclaimed. ‘Sorry. It says it’s on pacification mode.’

‘Oh, I think it is. It’s just damn powerful. I think that’s a pulsar pistol. They fire antimatter pulses in lethal mode. The acceleration field is usually more powerful than a typical blaster. The Xinti used them extensively, but we’ve never quite figured out the physics.’

Aneka looked down at the weapon she was holding. ‘I don’t know about the physics, but I can build and repair this thing.’ She moved the pistol up and snapped off a shot from her hip, watching as the target disintegrated.

‘Perhaps on your off time you could draw up some schematics,’ Bashford said. ‘Might be another little money-spinner for you if they can be manufactured.’ He pulled two rolls of paper out of a box. ‘And don’t worry, I have more targets.’

Aneka grinned at him. This was certainly more fun than reading textbooks.

Part Two: Where Men Once Walked

FScV Garnet Hyde, 25.9.523 FSC.

One of the things Aneka had had to learn was the standard calendar. The Federal authorities had set about defining a standard time system early in the life of the Federation. Jenlay, apparently, were more anal about that kind of thing than the other races, so Jenlay standards had been used for a lot of things. A second was a second, defined using some aspect of a caesium-133 atom, a minute was sixty of them. A day was the same length as she was used to, but divided into twenty hours of four thousand three hundred and twenty seconds each. The year was three hundred and sixty days long, divided into twelve, thirty-day months. Of course, each world had its own local calendar as well, and it all sounded very confusing. Her computer, however, did not consider it a problem. It popped up an application which let her keep track of multiple simultaneous clocks and calendars.

Her computer was becoming more ‘helpful’ as time went on. It did not seem to be sentient, as such, but there was certainly some degree of intelligence in there and it was showing itself more as she got more confident with her new body and the world she had found herself in.

And she was becoming more confident. Her nights were spent in a personalised, virtual dream world where she could interact with characters who taught her how society functioned. She had learned how to operate the common computer interfaces, been to parties and listened to the things people chatted about, attended lectures on the history of the Federation, and had more wet dreams than she thought was entirely proper.

She had been through the various training courses, initially with Bashford, then Monkey, and then on her own, though she was currently sharing the ship with Patton and Ella. Ella had got up four days ago to sit around looking nervous while Aneka did the exams. She had said someone had to since Aneka looked sublimely confident about it. Which was quite true. Monkey had told her that the questions were basically information recall and some problem-solving. Well, her computer-augmented memory was beyond perfect, she had discovered, and the kind of problem-solving she was being asked for was little different than planning the kind of military ops she had done a hundred times before.

The official report on her test scores was now waiting on confirmation by Drake and Bashford, and today was the day they would be emerging from the sleep pods along with Monkey and Gilroy. And assuming she had done as well as she thought, Aneka would become a resource for the preparations for planet-fall.

Aside from providing stress relief during the exams, though considering she seemed to be stressing more than Aneka was, perhaps it was the other way around, Ella had given her a bit of a briefing on their destination. Alpha Mensae IV was a relatively warm planet on the edge of known space; known space for now, but actually quite close to Old Earth, or where they thought Old Earth was. Heavy, but small, it had a high mineral content in its crust which seemed to be why some early human colony had been sited there and rediscovered by a deep survey mission three years earlier. Now they were going out to look at it since it might shed considerable light on early human activity in space.

‘So we’re going to go look at some ancient human miners?’ Aneka had asked.

‘After a thousand years in a warm environment, I doubt there’ll be much left of the miners,’ Ella had replied.

‘I’d have thought there wouldn’t be much left of anything.’

‘There are ruins. The building materials we’re talking about don’t decay. Pretty much ever.’

The three women walked down to the hibernation room together to wake everyone else up. With Aneka’s exams finished, they had gravitated into a threesome which Aneka had actually enjoyed; maybe Patton had been right about it needing the right people. Whatever, they had felt a little more like companions who should go together to see the others through the revival process. Aneka had seen three people come out of cold sleep now and she knew it was not exactly a pleasant process. You woke up cold and usually a bit nauseous, generally hungry and very thirsty.

‘I’m too old to be doing this,’ Gilroy groaned as she sat up and looked around at the others. She was the last one conscious and the others were all waiting for her to come around so that they could go find something to eat. Each was holding a plastic bottle of isotonic fluid, most of them had gone through half of it already. Patton handed Gilroy a bottle and she yanked off the sealed top and drained it in one go.

‘No you aren’t,’ Bashford replied. ‘You’ve been saying that for thirty years that I know of. Come on, we’ll get some food in us and take a look at Aneka’s test results. I’m keen to see what a Xinti-built synthetic body can do for us.’

Apparently the answer was, ‘quite a lot.’ Bashford’s eyes widened as he sat in the mess with a fork in one hand and a data tablet in the other, the former apparently briefly forgotten before his stomach growled and he started on the food. Then he spent twenty minutes peering at the display and scrolling backward and forward through the results. Drake, whose signing off on the exams was more of a formality, looked a little surprised and dug into his food to await Bashford’s analysis. Gilroy was also gazing intently at a tablet, though that could not be Aneka’s test results.

‘Ninety-six per cent,’ Bashford finally said. ‘I didn’t score that highly.’

‘I only scored eighty!’ Monkey squeaked.

‘Well, a lot of it was just recall of procedures,’ Aneka said, feeling embarrassed, ‘and I seem to be able to remember everything now. I always used to hate that kind of exam.’

‘You were supposed to be a data collection operative,’ Gilroy pointed out. ‘I would imagine the Xinti wanted accurate information.’

Bashford grunted. ‘Yes, your scores on procedure and documentation are perfect. The practical analysis scores are lower, but those are always a little subjective.’

‘I’m ex-military. I’m used to tactical analysis, insertion and extraction methods, site security… personal protection.’

‘Well, get some experience under your belt and you’ll be an absolutely first-rate facilitator.’ He tapped the screen a couple of times, and went through the sign-off process. Drake nodded, apparently happy, and did the same.

‘Aneka Jansen,’ the captain said, ‘Facilitator First Rank, welcome to the crew.’

Aneka gave him a smile. Ella positively beamed at them both. Then Aneka turned to Gilroy. ‘What are you staring at so intently, Doctor?’

‘Test results. The dream programs you went through took note of your reactions as well as providing education. The first part of your consultancy, if you will. I’m quite sure that your memory will fill in blanks in our knowledge, but your reaction to our world also tells us a lot about the differences. Of course, it will take some time to analyse the data. Ella’s the psychologist, she’ll be doing most of that.’

Trying not to think about the amount of dream sex she had had, Aneka said, ‘About that… You know, I was a grunt soldier. I mean, history was never my strong point and I hated politics. I don’t know how much blank space I can fill in.’

‘My dear girl,’ Gilroy said, smiling warmly, ‘if you’d seen how much information we have on your time you’d realise that anything you could tell us would be valuable. We’re not even sure about half of the information we do have.’

‘Like,’ Ella said, pausing to think of an example, ‘we’ve never understood how the world developed the way it did under a monarchy.’

Aneka frowned. ‘A monarchy?’

Ella nodded, enthusiastically as always. ‘We have records of one of the kings so we know it was a monarchy, and it just doesn’t seem like the right environment for a largely commercial interstellar society to develop from.’

‘Uh… which king? There was a queen on the throne when I… left.’

‘King Elvis. Apparently he was famous for singing.’

Aneka’s jaw worked for a few seconds before she managed to come out with, ‘Okay… Yes, maybe I’ll be more use to you than I thought.’

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Aneka was busy checking perimeter security sensors in the pressurised hold when the announcement came over the ship’s intercom. It was Patton’s voice, sounding very matter-of-fact. ‘All hands. We will be dropping out of warp in five minutes. Orbital insertion in fifteen.’ A slight thrill went through Aneka; they were arriving at her first ever alien world. Apparently, someone else had thought of that. ‘Aneka, please come up to the bridge,’ Patton added, her voice sounding as though she was grinning.

Dutifully finishing the diagnostics on the unit she was working on, Aneka arrived at the bridge just as the warp field was collapsing. With the field up, the light ahead of them was squashed to the point where it was invisible, frequency shifted to gamma rays by their speed. As they slowed, space ahead of them turned blue, then grew darker, and suddenly rippled into normality. And there was Alpha Mensae IV.

Whatever Aneka had been expecting, the planet did at least look alien. There was a reddish haze enveloping the globe, but she could just about make out large bodies of water and two land masses which looked very green, even through the red.

‘What do you think of your first planet?’ Ella asked. Gilroy was there too, both of them at the science station. Gilroy had the seat and was busy examining the early telemetry from the ship’s sensors.

‘Well, it’s alien,’ Aneka replied, ‘but I have seen a planet before. Just… not from space.’

Drake and Patton were sitting back in their chairs watching the displays set before them, apparently quite happy to let the ship do the work. Aneka figured it was not too different from a passenger jet from her time: they were capable of taking the entire flight from take-off to landing, and the crew were there to handle emergencies. The computers on the Garnet Hyde had to be vastly more advanced than the flight computers on a jet.

‘What’s with the haze?’ Aneka asked. ‘That atmosphere doesn’t look especially breathable.’

‘Upper atmospheric dust,’ Gilroy replied. ‘There’s a fairly high amount of volcanism on the southern continent. It probably keeps the atmosphere in check. The surface averages over three hundred kelvin as it is. Without the dust to reflect solar radiation, it could have gone greenhouse.’

Aneka watched as a data window appeared in her vision translating degrees kelvin to Celsius: about thirty, quite warm enough. She leaned forward slightly to look out toward the world’s Sun, looking dim through the automatically shaded viewing port. It still looked larger and more orange than the Sun did.

‘It’s a K-Two main sequence star,’ Ella supplied. ‘Larger than the star you’re used to, and a bit cooler, which makes the light more orange.’

‘So the light quality down there is going to be a bit weird.’

‘You’re unlikely to have any problems,’ Gilroy told her. ‘Generally, a combat body like yours will come with multispectral visual sensors.’ As she suggested it, the computer which Aneka had begun calling Al popped up a fairly complex display showing a graph of frequency and the band her visual sensors were currently operating in. Aneka had no clue what half of it meant, but she knew a few radio frequencies and she could see those at one end of the scale.

‘Apparently I have. I guess I can see in infrared. That could be useful down there.’

‘Orbital insertion velocity matched,’ Patton announced. ‘Course correction in five… four… three… two…’ There was no additional sound, but the ship’s orientation shifted slightly, perhaps a degree in yaw, two in pitch. ‘Course correction complete. Orbital insertion and retro burn in five minutes, twenty seconds.’

The globe of Alpha Mensae IV grew steadily in the window ahead of them. They were coming up on the night side, toward sunrise, and it made the atmosphere glow a brilliant crimson, but… ‘It looks kind of… small,’ Aneka commented.

‘About three-quarters of the size of New Earth,’ Gilroy agreed. ‘Gravity is point seven G. Atmospheric pressure is basically normal, oxygen-nitrogen composition. Quite breathable. Aside from the heat, it should be quite comfortable for working down there.’

Aneka took a last look out at the red and orange globe. ‘Can’t wait. I’d better get back to checking the sensors so I can set foot on my first alien planet.’

Alpha Mensae IV, 1.10.523 FSC.

It was actually the following day by the time the Garnet Hyde’s shuttle settled onto an open area just to the south of the site of the ‘mining town’ the first survey team had located. The slim, aerodynamic vessel was designed to function as a mobile science facility as well as providing bunk space and shelter. There were only four bunks, and no privacy, but there would always be one of the facilitators awake so that was not an issue. Given that Aneka appeared to be able to survive on about four hours’ sleep a day and could see in the dark, she had stated flatly that Bashford and Monkey should get a good night’s sleep and she would handle the night shifts.

Before Bashford would allow anyone to start doing close-up work, he wanted a perimeter set up. Aneka had expected the two scientists to balk at the delay, but they were disciplined about it, even Ella. Besides, while Bashford and Aneka went out to lay down perimeter sensors all the way around the town, Monkey was on the ship piloting a remote drone through the buildings. It was the first chance the two scientists would get to look at their site as well as an important security survey.

If Aneka had to guess, they had landed on what had passed for a landing field for the town. There was concrete under their feet, broken by plants which had forced their way through the rafts. It was there, however, and it was keeping the local plant life back. The indigenous flora life seemed to be pretty good at growing. Beyond the concrete plaza, the undergrowth was dense and finding a way into it to begin setting up the sensors was far from easy.

‘Are there any large animals on this rock?’ Aneka asked as she found a track she could use leading into the jungle. It looked like the interior was actually more open, probably due to the canopy above allowing less light to plants under the trees.

‘Initial survey has none,’ Bashford’s voice replied over her radio, ‘but the track I found suggests something wants hunting tracks. Be careful.’

‘Huh. I’m the one with the armoured skin. You be careful.’ She heard a chuckle cut off by the audio pickup and grinned as she walked further through the undergrowth, glad that she had added to her outfit. The leotard was still there, but she now had a bolero-style jacket in heavy Plastex over it, and gloves, all in black with red detailing. The jacket was fitted with mounts for a backpack, which she was using to carry the sensor units she was placing. Important for the current conditions was her leg-wear: heavy boots with thick soles and armoured toes and shin guards, with Plastex and Ultraskin leggings under them that covered most of her thighs. According to her reading, Plastex and Ultraskin were basically the same stuff, just different compositions. Plastex was thicker and more opaque than Ultraskin, but they were both forms of ‘bioplastic,’ a semi-living material capable of a form of photosynthesis; given carbon dioxide and ultraviolet light, a bioplastic could repair itself.

She started fitting sensor units at roughly one-hundred-metre intervals. The track she had entered by followed a loop around the town at about the right radius, so she walked along it, her eyes scanning the surrounding forest as she went. Out of the trees the light did, indeed, have a red-orange tint to it. In here, under the dense canopy, it was just dim, but Aneka could see perfectly. In fact, she could see better than perfectly. Spreading her eyes’ frequency response to include infrared light was letting her see much better in the gloom, and turning up the sensitivity gave her effective low-light vision. What she could not see was whatever had made the track through the jungle, however. It had to be something which still existed, given the apparent rate of growth of the plants. The town had been dead for nearly as long as she had been asleep, and the track would have overgrown long ago if the miners had cut it. Besides, why would they bother?

She stopped on the track midway past the town and looked around. She had taken the eastern side of the circle and there was a side-track branching off from the orbital one, heading off to her right. She pulled up the map they had of the area in-vision and then overlaid it with locators for the shuttle and crew.

‘Bash, are you seeing a track heading west from where you are?’ Really she had to get used to not vocalising when she used her radio.

‘Haven’t seen anything yet. You are?’

‘Yeah. I’m going to place an out-of-band sensor here, a little way up the path, and then get back to the circle.’

‘Agreed, and interesting.’

Aneka walked down the track around fifty paces. Ahead of her the forest was thickening, but the track continued into it. It did not look like the best place to go hunting without proper preparation. On her right was a tree she could mount the camera on so she pulled one from her bag, pulled the cover from the setaestrip on the back, and pressed it to the smooth bark.

It occurred to her that it was not exactly ‘bark.’ That was probably the best word for it, but the things she was calling trees were not quite like trees, and their skin was not quite like the bark she was used to at home. It had a more fibrous quality to it. Maybe the trees were built more like palms.

Checking the sensor unit was working, she turned back the way she had come to continue the half-circle.

~~~

‘Sensor net is up,’ Monkey reported as Aneka walked back up the big rear ramp of the shuttle.

‘Good,’ Bashford replied from the console on the other side of the ship. ‘Spot anything on the drone survey?’

‘The Doc and Ella did a lot of oohing and aahing over it, but I saw nothing suggesting a security issue.’

‘I think if there’s a security issue,’ Aneka said, ‘it’s going to come from that track in the forest.’

‘I’m looking at some of the feeds from the PESA units out there now,’ Gilroy’s voice came from further up the central bay. ‘Was there any indication of what could have made it?’

‘Nothing I could see,’ Aneka replied, looking at Bashford, who just shook his head. ‘I’ve seen tracks like that before on Earth, but this is an alien planet with no large predators.’ She paused. ‘Supposedly. Though a predator large enough to make that trail should have a substantial prey population and even if the initial survey missed the things with teeth, they shouldn’t have missed herds of alien cows.’

‘Something else then,’ Ella commented.

‘Drake and Patton might discover something from the orbital survey,’ Bashford said, ‘but it’ll take them a couple of days to go from basic topology and mapping to high-definition analysis.’

‘I’ll be interested to see whether those sensors pick up anything,’ Aneka commented. ‘I’m also surprised our charges aren’t out there already digging holes in the landscape.’

Ella swung her legs out from her station and climbed to her feet, picking up a box of some sort by its strap and slinging it over her shoulder. ‘Now that you’re here, we are. Bash thinks you should be our escort since you’ve got an enormous… gun.’

‘Actually,’ Bashford said smoothly, ‘I said that since you have better senses and a body that can stop a charging bull, we should have you cover Gillian and Ella.’

‘You hear that, Doc?’ Ella asked, a smirk on her face. ‘Aneka’s going to cover you?’

Gilroy slipped out of her own seat. Like Ella, she had added to the shipsuit she normally wore with smooth, high-density plastic boots, an equipment belt, gloves, and a sort of plastic balaclava with attached radio headset and shades which doubled as a HUD. The hood-like garment covered her short, wavy, brown hair and the shades obscured her dark brown eyes. There was little of her light brown skin on show, aside from her face and what could be seen through the thin fabric of her suit. She had opted for looking a little older, though not nearly as old as she was. Her breasts were a little on the heavy side and her face showed a few crow’s feet, but basically she was a good-looking woman and Aneka simply could not imagine going to bed with her. She looked thirty, tops, but came over more as a kindly aunt.

Which made her reply all the worse. ‘The chance would be a fine thing, Ella. When would she get the time with you around?’ Smiling down the aisle at Aneka, the doctor picked up a box of her own and walked past. Aneka found herself happy that blushing was now a voluntary effect.

Aneka turned on her heel and followed Gilroy out, allowing Ella to follow. ‘What’s the plan?’

Gilroy patted her box. ‘Terahertz radar survey of the town.’

‘And that does what?’

‘Terahertz radar will penetrate the plants, even the thinner walls, and give us information on where to start looking. It’s relatively short range, however, so we’ll need to set these up in a grid to cover the whole area thoroughly. Then the computers can stitch the map together and we can go over the data to select targets.’

‘And then,’ Ella said, coming up alongside them, ‘you guys get the cutting gear out to clear the plants back for us. The whole town is covered in vines and there are shrubs around most of the buildings.’

‘Given the growth at the jungle edges, I’m not surprised,’ Aneka said. ‘I’m actually surprised the whole area hasn’t been swallowed back up by the jungle.’

They had reached the edge of the buildings, or the lumps with plants on them which were probably buildings. Gilroy stamped her foot down, the heavy sole making a solid noise even through the light grass. ‘Some form of hard surface, compacted gravel, perhaps with a sealant. The plants have had trouble regaining a foothold. My guess is that the entire area has been blanketed with dust, volcanic and windblown, and the seeds have managed to propagate in that.’

Aneka grunted. ‘Don’t sit still too long. Something might decide to grow on you.’ The two scientists laughed. ‘Anything I can be doing besides making sure you don’t get eaten?’

‘Keep those high-tech eyes peeled,’ Gilroy replied. ‘You never know what you might see which we can’t.’

Aneka shrugged and, more or less on a whim, instructed her eyes to expand their frequency response to full range. The world became a strange place. She was seeing everything from infrared through to ultraviolet, and even some longer wavelengths coming in from stray radio waves bouncing off surfaces. She walked onward, trying to get a proper handle on the image she was seeing. The visible spectrum, it seemed, was an incredibly narrow band and seeing everything just made the world enormously confusing. A pop-up appeared in her vision and she blinked, which did nothing to make the pop-up go away. Initiate false-colour overlay mapping? it said. Well, it sounded like an idea, yes. Her vision changed again. Now she was seeing the normal world, but on top of that was a bluish overlay of ultraviolet sources, and a false-colour red-scale of infrared, and what seemed to be like an edge map showing the passive radar input. Still a little confusing, but much clearer.

Gilroy stopped at a crossroads and began to set up her equipment while Ella continued onward. Aneka looked around, seeing nothing dangerous, and followed Ella. About four hundred metres up, Ella stopped and began to place her radar gizmo, and Aneka looked around, checking that Gilroy was still there and okay.

‘And off we go,’ Ella said behind her, and suddenly the world lit up like a Christmas tree.

‘Holy shit!’ Aneka exclaimed.

‘What?!’ Ella squeaked, bolting upright and looking around for the monster bearing down on them. There was no monster.

‘I can see… everything,’ Aneka replied as the radar images outlined walls, roads, even some of the building interiors. ‘I must be picking up the signals from your radar.’ She stopped, her eyes catching a shape under some undergrowth at the edge of the road. It appeared nothing more than an oddly shaped lump under thick grass-like vegetation and creepers, but her vision was showing something else. She raised her voice. ‘Doc? You might want to come over here.’

Stepping toward the lump, Ella cautiously following, Aneka pulled her combat knife from the back of her belt. The incredibly fine edge parted the vines easily and she pulled away the grass. Ella let out a gasp as a pair of eye sockets looked blankly back at them.

‘Oh,’ Gilroy said, coming to a sudden stop from her running pace.

‘I don’t think this place was abandoned,’ Aneka said. ‘Most people don’t just leave corpses lying in the street.’

‘Ella,’ the doctor said, ‘could you go back to the ship and get the lidar scanner? Aneka, if you could clear the rest of the vegetation? If there’s evidence of how he died, I’d like it quickly. Perhaps this world does have something dangerous on it after all.’

~~~

With the rear hatch sealed shut and Monkey watching the security monitors, everyone felt perfectly safe. Everyone else had gathered around the science station with various pre-packaged food stuffs in plastic trays, except for Aneka who had decided that if she did not need to eat much she definitely did not need to eat plastic food. They were watching as Gilroy went over the evidence they had uncovered so far.

‘We’ve unearthed and scanned seven skeletons.’ Holographic images of each of the skeletons cycled past on her console as she spoke. Aneka watched them, noting damage patterns. ‘Cause of death varies. One was undetermined. Two had crush damage, skull, and/or rib cage. The others show trauma to the bones consistent with Xinti antimatter weapons.’ She nodded to the pistol slung at the side of Aneka’s right thigh. ‘Probably bigger ones than that. We’re running a dating sequence, but I expect it to come back with a date around the end of the Xinti War.’

‘So the Xinti took this place out,’ Bashford said. ‘I’m surprised the site isn’t flattened.’

‘Possibly they were planning on reusing the structures,’ Gilroy replied. ‘If we thought it was a good place for a mining station, maybe they did too.’

‘What about the radar survey?’

Gilroy tapped a couple of virtual keys and the display changed to show a slowly rotating topographical map of the town. Basically square, it was laid out on a grid. Two main thoroughfares crossed through the centre, then each quarter was divided up again by smaller alleys. At the north end of the site, furthest from the ship, was a single, longer building which capped off the end of the north-south main road.

‘We have three primary targets,’ Gilroy said, tapping keys again. The large building lit up in red along with two smaller ones, one in the centre, the other on the western edge. ‘The large block was probably an administrative building. We may find useful data there. We want to check the other two to confirm a standard layout.’ She glanced at Aneka. ‘These mining outposts were often flat-packed, slot together kits. They often have a very standard layout with commercial buildings in the middle and habitation on the edge.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Tomorrow we get the strimmers out?’

‘I’m not sure what a strimmer is,’ Bashford replied, ‘but we go in and cut back the foliage so these two can get in and see what’s to be seen.’ He frowned at the model for a second. ‘We’ll clear the admin building first and then you can go in with Gillian and Ella while Monkey and I carve our way into the other two buildings.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Aneka replied, reaching for the buckle of her equipment belt. ‘I’m going to switch off for a few hours before night shift. Al will keep a connection up to the alert system. Prod me if anything happens.’

‘I still can’t believe you named your on-board computer,’ Ella said.

Aneka shrugged and turned toward the bunks tucked away behind the cockpit. ‘I didn’t want to keep calling him “computer.” Al’s shorter. Worry when I decide to name my pistol.’

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Despite being called ‘soft defoliation units,’ the gadgets they were using looked and worked exactly like the heavy-duty strimmers that Aneka had seen used by park officials and the like on Earth… Old Earth, really have to get used to that… A long shaft mounted on a chest harness had a semi-circular shield on the end with a rapidly rotating length of plastic wire in it. The wire chopped through vegetation easily, but did little damage to solid objects under it. Effective, relatively subtle, but it still took three of them almost an hour to cut away enough of the plant material to reveal the two heavy, metal doors hidden behind the vines enough that they could be opened.

When they were finished, Bashford and Monkey were sweating and breathing heavily, and did not look pleased at the prospect of having to pry open the shutters. Aneka unstrapped her SDU and took her visor off, thankful that her new body did not appear to sweat unless she let it.

Bashford pulled a couple of metal discs with handles attached from a bag and held them up. ‘Want to see if those artificial muscles of yours can shift those doors? You’ll make two normal Jenlay really happy if you can.’ Aneka shrugged. She had no idea what she was capable of so it would be an interesting exercise. She took the plates. ‘Just press them to the doors and push the buttons on top of the handles.’

The plates seemed to contain some form of electromagnet which locked to the steel plates very firmly on either side of the seam. Aneka was impressed; something like that would have been useful for breaching hatches. She gripped the handles, set her booted feet, closed her eyes, and pulled. There was a horrendously ugly sound of metal under stress and a window popped up behind Aneka’s eyelids showing stress levels in her shoulder actuators. The numbers were green; she applied more force. The stress noises changed to scraping noises and the numbers turned yellow. She wondered absently what happened if they went red, and kept up the pressure. Her body did not tire. There were no toxins to build up in the muscles she no longer possessed, and her motors had no need for oxygen. She kept pulling.

As her hands passed the width of her shoulders, the angle became inefficient and she let go of the handles, turning around to back into the space between the doors so that she could push rather than pull. Monkey was standing there with his jaw hanging open and she grinned at him before placing her palms against the grapple handles and pushing. Ella wandered up beside Monkey to watch as Aneka’s synthetic muscles bunched and strained to shift the doors, her chest pushing outward as she did so. The cyborg woman almost stopped to burst out laughing as the two younger members of the team licked their lips, unconsciously, and in unison.

The doors suddenly gave, sliding open as far as she could push them. She lowered her arms and grinned. ‘Perverts,’ she commented.

‘To be fair to the younger perverts,’ Bashford replied, ‘there’s just something about a girl using her muscles…’

‘Even if they aren’t entirely organic muscles,’ Gilroy agreed. She had located a pry bar in Bashford’s bag and stepped forward to hand it over. ‘Since you don’t have to breathe, it might be an idea for you to open the inner doors while we stand back. These structures occasionally manage to maintain enough integrity to be hermetic. You never know what might outgas.’

‘Saves us getting into protective gear,’ Bashford agreed.

Aneka took the bar and turned to the closed inner doors. ‘If I wasn’t here, you’d have had to bring a bulldozer, right?’ These doors were supposed to be transparent plastic mounted in an aluminium frame, but the plastic was thickly coated in dust now and quite opaque.

‘Maybe,’ Bashford replied. ‘What’s a bulldozer?’

Jamming the head of the pry bar into the join between the two doors, Aneka said, ‘Never mind,’ and put her weight into forcing the doors. This time the in-vision stress numbers never went over the green before there were a couple of metallic twangs and the locking pins gave way. Then there was a rush of dust and stale air through the gap. Inside, something fell over with a damp thud, and when Aneka dropped the bar and pulled the doors apart, they spotted the corpse which had been sitting against them. Aneka’s nose wrinkled.

‘Biohazard gear,’ Gilroy said. The body had not entirely desiccated though the skin was drawn tight across the skeleton. There was no obvious indication of how the man, it looked male, had died either. No wounds, no sign of energy weapon impact.

‘I’ll have decontamination gear ready when you come out,’ Bashford said. ‘Come on, Monkey. Let’s go clear the other sites.’

‘Gladly,’ the younger man replied.

Gilroy, now wearing a helmet over her headgear, appeared at Aneka’s side and handed her a face mask. ‘No sign of how he died. You’d better wear this. It’s hard to decontaminate the inside of your lungs.’

‘Asphyxiation or starvation,’ Aneka guessed. ‘Too scared to leave the building, ran out of food or water.’ She poked a toe at an empty, plastic bottle lying near the body. ‘But why didn’t they come in here to clean out the rest of the miners?’ She raised her head and looked around, augmented vision picking out the interior of the room in the dim light. ‘Looks like it was a reception area. Desk at the back there. Still has a computer monitor on it.’ There were two doors leading out of the room: one to the right, one to the left from behind the semi-circular desk. Public and private rooms, probably.

‘Step back, Aneka,’ Gilroy instructed. ‘We’ll lidar-map the room before proceeding. It gives us a full three-D mapping of the space before it’s disturbed.’

Aneka nodded and moved back, slipping her mask on before starting to breathe normally. What the lidar did and how it did it had been part of her coursework. How long it would take had also been in there; they were going to be waiting a while before they could proceed further into the building.

~~~

Aneka slammed her pry bar into the edge of the inner door behind the desk and pushed. There was the sound of straining metal for a brief second, and then the door flew open as if on springs. This time there was no rush of air, but dust fell from some of the overhead panels.

‘I won’t need decontaminating after this,’ Aneka growled, ‘I’ll need to be washed down with a fire hose.’

‘You did say your hair was dirty blonde before,’ Ella said. ‘Now it’s just dirty.’

‘Thanks.’ Aneka’s eyes scanned ahead, taking in the fairly narrow corridor with its suspended ceiling and tiled floor, and she frowned. ‘There’s a heat source. Probably in the far corner of the building. Not very bright, but it’s there.’

‘It’s probably the building’s power system,’ Gilroy commented. ‘Is it moving?’

‘No.’

‘Keep an eye on it while we run the lidar down this corridor. Assuming that your heat source doesn’t move, we’ll let you check that first, and we can work back toward this room.’

‘And if it does move?’

‘You shoot it and we worry over being systematic afterwards.’

Aneka gave a shrug and backed up a pace, freeing the strap on her pistol, just in case. ‘I can live with that plan.’ Ella was already busy pointing the lidar sensor head down the corridor. The red beam flicked out and began its rapid scanning.

They had found another body behind the reception desk when they had got to it, and that discovery had just deepened the mystery of the place. This body’s clothing suggested a woman, but it was hard to tell from just the body since the corpse was badly desiccated. She had also been shot by something big: her skull was more or less gone, but what was left showed charring. Most interesting to Aneka was her left arm, which was cybernetic.

‘If she was shot, and a while ago,’ Aneka said, nodding toward the corpse, ‘would that seem to indicate that we have two assaults here?’

‘We probably won’t know for sure until we’ve run the dating sequences,’ Gilroy replied. ‘I admit the differences in the two corpses are perplexing.’

‘Artificial arm too.’

‘The prejudice regarding cybernetics comes from the War. This place predates that and replacement of body parts, even voluntarily, was far more common back then.’ Gilroy gave a shrug. ‘Even now it’s used where needed. Look at Ella.’

‘Scan’s complete,’ Ella told them, picking up the instrument and moving to one side. Aneka pulled her pistol and edged past. The picture-in-picture sighting display appeared along with a charge count and a lethal indicator. Not knowing what she was dealing with, she left the weapon at full power. ‘Be careful,’ Ella said, sounding a little worried.

‘You people seem to keep forgetting what I am.’

The door had a pull handle on it which undid the latch and let it be slid sideways. Gripping it, she pulled, opening the door far enough to allow the nose of her pistol to be slipped through. ‘Machine room,’ she said. ‘Looks like… computer racks. A big cylindrical device. Could be a power unit of some sort. That’s where the heat source is. I’ll patch the video through to your helmets…’

There was a pause and then, ‘That’s a fusion plant,’ Gilroy said, sounding a little surprised. ‘If it’s still operating, it must have been dropped to minimal output or have a large auxiliary fuel tank under the building.’

‘The terahertz survey didn’t indicate anything below this building,’ Ella supplied.

Satisfied that the heat source was not an immediate danger, Aneka pulled the door fully open. Standing in the doorway, she could see an indicator panel on the side of the power unit and her gun sights had pretty good magnification. ‘See that? Fuel level is practically zero, but something’s drawing about five hundred watts.’ She scanned her camera around the room and stopped. There was a dim, but active, LED glowing on one of the racks. ‘It looks like there’s still some active electronics.’

‘Oh, let it be the colony log unit,’ Gilroy almost prayed. ‘We may even get video and reports on the Xinti attack.’ She started down the corridor along with Ella. ‘Get a scan of the room and then we’ll see what we can salvage. Aneka, could you open up the other rooms?’

Slipping her gun into her holster, Aneka nodded and turned to the door behind her. For some reason it was all a little depressing. She was used to dropping into places like this in order to mount rescue operations. Here she was with a body which could have stood up to anti-tank weaponry back at home, but here there was no one to rescue. Everyone had died a thousand years ago.

Gripping the handle, Aneka yanked open the door and did not even bother looking before moving on to the next.

~~~

‘Well,’ Gilroy said as they sat in the shuttle for lunch, ‘this may partially explain our mysterious corpses.’ Everyone turned to glance at her, except for Aneka who was sitting at the security station, a little out of the way, having no need to eat. ‘Five of our seven bodies date, as I suggested, to the end of the Xinti War. Approximately nine hundred and fifteen years, plus or minus fifty. Two of them, however, came back at three hundred and twenty-two years.’

‘Isn’t that within what you classify as recorded history?’ Aneka asked.

‘Yes, but this region is still classified as outside the Federal Rim. Back then it was “here be dragons” country.’

Aneka laughed. ‘I can’t believe you still use that phrase.’

‘You’d prefer “here be space dragons” perhaps?’

‘Better. So some bunch of deep space scroungers go out looking for old sites to loot, come here, and get themselves shot up by Xinti energy weapons? I thought they were supposed to have been wiped out by then.’

‘The Herosians claim there are still pockets of them out there,’ Monkey said. ‘No one has actually claimed to see a live one in over two centuries, but back then there were possibly still one or two enclaves still operating.’ He shrugged. ‘Though if they were here when these looters arrived, I’d expect them to still be here.’

‘Initial planetary survey is complete.’ Drake’s voice came from the speakers around the room. The ship crew were there in spirit if not physically. ‘The only evidence we’ve found of structures is the town you’re at and what looks like a mine entrance about a mile to the north.’

‘Any indication of indigenous life?’ Aneka asked.

‘Not on land, but we haven’t run the high-def scans yet,’ Patton replied. ‘We have found some evidence of life in the oceans. Nothing bigger than about a metre though. Several large algal blooms in the open ocean and I saw fish of some sort feeding on them.’

‘Nothing to explain those track ways you found,’ Drake added. ‘Maybe the next sweeps will find something. We’ll run the continent you’re on as a priority.’ There was a pause and then, ‘Oh, Bash, could you run diagnostics on the shuttle’s systems?’ Bashford immediately started for the cockpit. ‘We’ve picked up some random EM bursts. Just noise, no longer than a second at a time, but I don’t want to find out we’ve ignored a possible comms system failure we could prevent.’

‘On it,’ Bashford said from the front of the shuttle. Aneka’s eyes flicked left as one of the security sensors fuzzed out for a fraction of a second. Maybe the diagnostic run was a good idea if they were getting dropouts on the cameras.

~~~

When Aneka had said she wanted to fire off her pistol at something she had been expecting Bashford and Monkey to want to watch. What she got was everyone, along with five high-definition multispectral cameras trained on her, her makeshift firing range, and the target.

‘I just wanted to find out what firing it on full power was like,’ Aneka almost whined as she had to wait while various sensors were trained on her and the unfortunate tree which was going to get shot for science.

‘And how often do you think we’ve been able to apply modern sensor equipment to a Xinti antiparticle beam weapon?’ Gilroy replied. She glanced across at Ella who was walking back from setting up the two target sensors. ‘When you’re ready.’

Pulling her pistol, Aneka checked the setting was lethal and lined up on her target, bracing the pistol’s grip in her left palm. She took aim and Al indicated the target point she was about to hit, about four feet up the trunk, and the target’s range, fifty metres. She squeezed the trigger. A pulse of blue-white light left the barrel and hit the tree a fraction of a second later. There was a loud thud, which Aneka felt as a pressure pulse in her chest not unlike a hand grenade going off, and wood splinters flew in all directions. The bushes near the tree thrashed, dropping leaves. When the dust cleared, they could see the huge hole which had ripped the side of the trunk out. They could see daylight through it.

Aneka set the safety and slipped the pistol back into its holster, blinking at the damage. ‘Well, fuck me sideways,’ she muttered.

‘Yeah,’ Monkey said. ‘That’s why people still worry about meeting up with a Xinti.’

~~~

Aneka watched her own diagnostics rippling past over the inside of her eyelids, happy to see that everything was in the green. Her time display suggested that she had barely had four hours’ sleep, enough, but meagre. However, she decided she was going to get up anyway since she had woken up from a dream of being strapped to a frame in the Xinti ship they had found her in while strange aliens and robots hissed and crackled their peculiar communication.

Slipping out of bed, she glanced toward the cockpit and saw the dark sky outside. Night had fallen on Alpha Mensae IV and the rest of the team would be back in the shuttle, maybe finishing up dinner, maybe going over the data they had collected or watching a film on one of the consoles. She could hear voices, and could have resolved them if she wished, but she was not interested in eavesdropping. Reaching to the deck at her feet, she picked up her leotard to pull on.

Monkey was at the security console, though half his attention was focussed on the screen across the aisle which Ella and Bashford were using to watch something Aneka took to be a comedy. They were laughing at it anyway, though there seemed to be more naked people on screen than Aneka expected from a sitcom. Monkey glanced up at her with a grin on his face as she walked past, and she returned the grin. Her face straightened as she caught something on his screen.

‘Bash? How did that diagnostic go?’

‘No faults found,’ Bashford replied. ‘Everything was optimal or better, actually. I ran a check on the transmission systems, sensors, and the power systems, just in case. Nothing to indicate a problem. Why?’

‘We keep getting random camera dropouts. Very short. Less than a second.’

Monkey’s hands moved to his keyboard. ‘She’s right. Twenty-six of them over the day. Number sixteen went out for nought point seven five seconds ninety-six seconds ago.’

A map of the camera placements flicked up in Aneka’s vision field. Sixteen was one of hers, just north of the eastbound track. ‘Can you bring up a plot of the outages with times on a map?’ Monkey nodded, fingers flicking over the keys. By now everyone was watching the display; Gilroy had moved up from her science station. ‘The side-track first, early this morning,’ Aneka said. ‘Then various places around the circle. I don’t see a pattern.’

‘Neither does the computer,’ Monkey supplied, ‘but fifteen, the one on the branch track, has dropped out more often than the others.’

Aneka checked her pistol. ‘Are you guys going to be up for another thirty minutes or so?’

‘At least,’ Bashford replied.

‘I’m going to go out and check that area.’

‘I’ll come…’ he began.

‘Armoured synthetic body, remember.’ She started for the rear hatch. ‘Keep an eye on the cameras and I’ll have Al patch my visuals through as well.’

Even in the dark the forest was bright to Aneka’s eyes. She walked along the game-trail to the point where the track branched off to the east and came across nothing. No tracks, no signs, nothing. As she approached camera fifteen, Al connected through to its control circuitry and a diagnostic display appeared in her vision field.

‘No sign of any faults,’ she said. ‘No visible damage.’ She flicked through the diagnostic displays to find a transmission coverage graph. ‘It’s been transmitting constantly. The dropouts have to be something jamming the signal.’

‘The transmitter on those things isn’t powerful,’ Monkey said over her comms. ‘It wouldn’t take too much to interfere with the sig–’ He cut off in static and Aneka had her pistol in her hand before she knew she was reacting. Something moved past her, a sound of rapidly moving footfalls, a sensation of presence, but even as she turned and looked after it, she saw nothing. ‘–ka, do you read me?’

‘I read you,’ she said, this time managing to keep herself silent outside her head. ‘There’s something here. Something with some wicked stealth characteristics.’

‘Your signal cut out along with the camera,’ Monkey said, and was immediately cut off by Bashford.

‘Aneka, I want you back on this ship as soon as you can get here,’ the lead facilitator said, his tone urgent. ‘We’re going to lock down the shuttle and hold until morning.’

Aneka took a last look down the track and then turned, heading back. ‘On my way.’

3.10.523 FSC.

‘It’s using some form of wide-spectrum, adaptive camouflage,’ Aneka said as they sat around the shuttle over breakfast, ‘and a close-range jamming system to knock out radio comms. Al detected the jamming, but it didn’t make much difference at the time. Why would it need that on top of the stealth?’

Monkey, who seemed to know more about Xinti weapons technology than anyone else, supplied the answer. ‘The Xinti had that kind of capability. Multispectral stealth coating was used on their scouting probes, but it wasn’t so much use against very high- or low-band scanners and the security sensors can probably see a wider band than your eyes. Even assuming this thing isn’t a Xinti, the same would apply. So it jams the camera transmissions while it’s passing them.’

‘Why assume it’s not?’ Aneka asked.

‘It didn’t attack you.’

Aneka sucked on her teeth. ‘I wouldn’t make that call just yet. If this is a scout, it may not be sufficiently armed to take on what it would probably recognise as a combat model. A Xinti scout could probably identify me. Maybe it even figured if I was a Xinti-build, I was on its side.’

‘It’s not impossible,’ Gilroy said. ‘They had a highly stratified, hierarchical structure. Any organic life form, or a form derived from an organic life form, was higher up the ranks than a digital one. If it identified you as an emulation and it’s a robot, an AI, which seems likely given the timescale, you would outrank it.’

‘Huh. Maybe I can talk to it if I can spot it.’ She looked at the wide-eyed expression on Gilroy’s face. ‘What?’

‘You speak Xinti?’

‘Yes. Well, I could understand them on the ship. That translation software I’m running works for them, and I seem to be able to mimic just about any sound I want so the weird noises they make…’

‘No one knows how to speak Xinti,’ Ella stated flatly. ‘We can read their writing, but no one has ever figured out their speech.’

‘I guess I’d be a lousy spy if I couldn’t report back.’ Her reply was absent sounding, as though she was thinking about something else. Her fingers moved over the keyboard. ‘Surface team to Garnet Hyde, do you read?’

Patton’s voice sounded over the speakers. ‘Patton here, Aneka. What can I do for you?’

‘Those EM noise bursts you picked up, do you have recordings?’

‘Sending them down now. I’ll send the high-def scan data down at the same time. We’ve covered most of your immediate area.’

‘Thanks, Shannon.’ Aneka watched as the display on the security console showed the download of the data files, then selected the first one to complete, indicating that it should be treated as an audio file and played back. A burst of static erupted from the speaker and Aneka frowned. ‘A status report, “Approaching sector two boundary. Activity detected.” They’re Xinti, and it sounds like there’s more than one if they’re sending back reports.’ She moved to the last of the files, the metadata attached to it indicating that it had been recorded just after her encounter with the scout. ‘It’s reporting the encounter with me,’ she said. ‘It says it’s detected Xinti components and identified me as a Xinti. A second voice tells it to return to sector one.’ She frowned. ‘It identified me as a Xinti?’

‘Probably some aspect of your computer system,’ Gilroy suggested. ‘Xinti “brains” were different from the standard computers they used in robots.’

‘They have some sort of base?’ Bashford said.

‘That would be my estimation,’ Aneka said, still bothered by the identification. ‘What’s the plan, Boss?’

Bashford was the kind of man Aneka would have considered it a pleasure to work under. He knew his limitations, and his first action was to look at Monkey. ‘We haven’t been attacked,’ the younger facilitator supplied. ‘Dad always said that whenever anyone encountered a Xinti defence system, it didn’t wait around. If it was going to hit you, it hit you. I don’t know why it hasn’t, but I think the Navy would be very interested in finding out. Maybe we need to be more careful, but I think we stay.’

‘Clearly,’ Gilroy said for the scientific contingent, ‘we want to remain here as long as it’s safe. If this is a potential Xinti site as well…’

Bashford gave a short bark of a laugh. ‘I know. That just gets your juices flowing faster. All right. Aneka, go through the rest of those transmissions. You might want to see if you can tune to the frequency they’re using, maybe pick up their comms. Join us at the admin office when you’re done. Monkey, break out the carbines and get the ladies some side arms.’ He looked around between Ella and Gilroy. ‘Wear them,’ he added firmly and very much as though he had been through this before.

People began to move and Aneka turned to the console, preparing to pipe the Xinti noise through her internal translation system. She paused as Monkey stopped beside her. ‘You want a carbine to go along with that cannon of yours?’

She remembered the specifications on the polychromatic laser carbines they carried. Her blaster had more raw power and the same penetration capability, give or take, and the smaller draw meant she could actually fire more charges before needing to reload. The carbines had her beat hands down on range, but… ‘In this terrain we won’t be engaging at the kind of ranges where a longer barrel has an advantage. I’ll stick with Bessie.’

Ella’s head went up. ‘You named your gun?’

Aneka turned to her console. ‘Bessie is a good name for a BFG.’

‘What’s a BFG?’

‘Big fucking gun,’ Aneka, Monkey, and Bashford said in unison.

5.10.523 FSC.

There had been nothing much in the other recordings. The scout had identified the four Jenlay, though the word it had used translated as ‘human,’ and determined that Aneka was not one early on. It had made a report indicating that the team was doing a survey. There had been no indication of an intention to attack, but it was clear that they had been watched more or less the entire time they had been there.

The body count so far was thirty-three, including the three looters. They had found ten corpses holed up in what had, in fact, turned out to be a house on the edge of the settlement. Three had been found in the shop, which appeared to be a general goods store from the contents. The remainder had been found in the administration building, and their location was telling. It appeared that a group of miners had made a last stand against the Xinti forces in the west wing where they had power and water. They had collected enough rations to last several days, and touched none of them.

Aneka had walked among the rooms, taking in the upturned desks with blast marks a lot like the damage her pistol did, but bigger. These people had not stood a chance against the invading force, and they had probably known it. There had been no hope of reinforcements. FTL communications relied on the transmission of a tight beam of tachyons, according to Bashford. You had to know exactly where you were sending it, and even using modern equipment the transmission lag was measured in days. They had dispatched a report to New Earth from the Garnet Hyde, and that was going to take around twelve days to get there. They would not be getting a reply: it was impossible to hit a ship with a tachyon beam at that distance. If they ran into trouble, a high-warp response cruiser would take ten days to get to them from the nearest naval base.

So far, however, the Xinti scouts had left them alone. In fact, there had been no more camera outages, and no more burst transmissions. The team had settled into a working pattern where Gilroy and Ella did their job while the three facilitators guarded them. Monkey and Bashford took turns manning the security station on the shuttle, alternating that with sentry duty alongside Aneka. Aneka’s body did not seem to tire very easily, and she was now well suited to the task of keeping a constant, armed watch outside whichever building the two archaeologists were working in. It gave her a chance to learn a little more about her colleagues.

‘So, your father is in the military?’ Aneka said to Monkey as they stood outside the shop. Well, she stood, and he sat on a crate, his carbine resting on his thighs.

‘Captain of the Admiral Banfry. It’s an Admiral-Class battleship. Captain Tor Gibbons, though his friends call him “Ape.”’

Aneka grinned. ‘Another reason they call you Monkey?’

‘Huh, yeah.’

‘What about your mother?’ She had already learned that, since marriage was a thing of the past, people did not assume married names. Children were allowed to choose the surname of whichever parent they wished, though traditionally girls would take their mother’s name and boys their father’s.

‘Oh, she’s inside digging through old stuff.’

Aneka glanced at him, seeing the slight colouring of his cheeks. ‘The Doc is your mother?’ Clearly he had got most of his looks from his father.

‘He takes after his father,’ Gilroy called from inside, confirming the speculation, ‘though he’s more my build. Ape is a sweet man, built like an armoured car, though. I’d probably still be with him if he spent less time in space.’ She poked her head out through the door to add, ‘The sex was incredible.’ Monkey went scarlet and she grinned at him before ducking back inside.

‘Parents are supposed to be embarrassing,’ Aneka said, consoling the boy. She kicked herself; he was older than she was before she had been turned into a robot. ‘Your dad’s the one who taught you about the Xinti?’

‘Well, they both did. Dad is the one who told me horror stories about them. He’s why I… well, wasn’t keen on you when we found you. That and…’ He trailed off.

‘And what?’ Aneka prodded.

Monkey looked mildly mortified. ‘Well, I’ve never met a robot or cyborg that looked like you. I… I’m a bit…’

Gilroy’s face appeared in the doorway again. ‘David tends to be a little timid around very attractive women. Especially ones he’s personally attracted to.’

Ella appeared as well, just behind her boss. ‘Psychologically, you’ve got to be his worst nightmare. A woman part of his brain is afraid of, and another part wants to take to bed.’

‘I wouldn’t say nightmare,’ Monkey mumbled. He pulled himself up straighter and added, ‘But they’re right. I don’t think I could bring myself to ask you, and if I did I’d probably freak out part way through. So it’s probably a good thing I’m shy.’

Aneka shrugged. ‘Well, back in my day, women were trying to shake off the homemaker-or-whore stigma. I mean, equality in the Western world was fairly evident. Hell, I was a combat soldier. Women ran big companies. There was still something of a stigma over being a sexy, self-confident woman. And now… The first time you looked at me and saw my body instead of a Xinti killing machine I was happy. I’ll take lust over loathing any day.’

‘You’ll get both when we go home,’ Ella told her. The younger of the two scientists specialised in psychology and anthropology, though she was a good archaeologist. ‘There are people with a fetish for cybernetics and robots. There are also people who have a far deeper hatred, or a phobia, regarding them.’

‘It’s Herosians you’ll need to worry about,’ Monkey said. ‘They really don’t like anything Xinti. I can see there being some diplomatic issues when we get back.’

Aneka’s shoulders hunched. ‘Something to look forward to then.’

6.10.523 FSC.

Another thing they had decided to make a rule on was that everyone was inside the shuttle by nightfall. That did not, of necessity, mean that the work ended then, but it generally meant that Aneka took her sleep break just after dark, getting up just before everyone else retired for the night, and then spending most of the time until after dawn sitting at the security console, bored and alone.

The sight of Ella padding toward her down the aisle, naked, sleepy-eyed, and yawning brought a smile to Aneka’s face. It was about fifteen minutes before sunrise and there was light showing in the sky, just enough that Aneka could see the little redhead without enhanced vision.

‘I woke up early,’ Ella said, rubbing at her eyes, ‘and I thought I’d come down here. We haven’t been alone for days.’

Aneka reached out, slipping an arm around Ella’s waist and pulling her closer. ‘Är min flicka kåt?’

Ella blinked at her. ‘Huh?’

‘It’s Swedish, “Is my girl horny?”’ Aneka’s fingers slid up Ella’s stomach to the under-slope of her breast.

‘S-Swedish?’ the redhead stammered.

‘My father was Swedish, born in Sweden.’ She began stroking her middle finger across Ella’s nipple. ‘That’s one of the countries in northern Europe. In the old days, like a thousand years before my time, they were known for being fearsome warriors.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Ella said, half a moan.

Aneka curled two fingers from her free hand into Ella, sliding them easily between slick labia. ‘By my time, people think we’re all porn addicts and perverts.’ She got a whimper out of her partner, curled her fingers, and began to push against the spot she had discovered which seemed to drive Ella particularly wild. ‘Mind you, I’m only half Swedish, and I was born in England.’

Ella said, ‘Nggg,’ and Aneka giggled. Ella’s knees started to buckle and Aneka tightened her arm around her victim’s waist, holding her up with no effort. Ella started panting: it would be a matter of seconds now.

Camera fifteen’s display went to snow. It looked like the scout was back, but Aneka ignored it as Ella’s hands gripped her shoulder, her inner muscles tightening convulsively around Aneka’s fingers. The little redhead whimpered and mewled in ecstasy as Aneka watched the camera displays. Fifteen did not come back and fourteen went out.

Aneka slipped her fingers free, getting a moan of loss from Ella. ‘Go wake the others.’ Camera thirteen went to snow. ‘We’ve got trouble.’

‘N-now you tell me,’ Ella mumbled, but she forced her legs into life and started down the aisle.

By the time a half-dressed Bashford had appeared from the sleeping area, five more cameras had gone out. ‘They’re back?’

‘And this time the cameras aren’t coming back online.’

Bashford moved to the other side of the aisle and began typing. A window opened on Aneka’s display showing the display from the ship’s sensors. ‘Three targets,’ she said. ‘Two of those look kind of large for what I sensed a couple of days ago.’

‘Probably full-sized combat robots. You have an anatomical chassis, but these things are constructed purely for war.’

‘That’s not a good sign.’ She tapped a few keys and had Al display the resulting transmission in her vision field. Then she swung her legs out and started toward the rear door, picking up her belt and gun as she went.

‘Where are you going?’ Bashford asked, sounding quite calm despite the alarm showing in his posture.

‘Can this thing stand up to two Xinti warbots? Because I’m pretty sure the looters we found came here in a ship and there’s no evidence of it.’

‘You can’t either,’ Bashford pointed out.

‘No, but I can try talking to them. At worst I can buy you some time to get off this rock.’

‘Aneka…’

She stopped and turned to look at him, seeing Ella in her shipsuit in the aisle just past him. ‘Bash, I should have died a thousand years ago. I did die, what’s left is a ghost in a box. I’ve got synthetic skin with nothing but steel under it. You people have long lives to live…’

‘So do you,’ Ella said.

Aneka stared at her for a second. In-vision she could see the warbots moving along the track toward the ship. ‘I’m a soldier, Ella. This is what I do.’ She turned, hitting the hatch button as she walked toward it. ‘Get this ready to take off. If I can’t stop them, you’ll need to go without me.’

The ship’s imaging radar showed the scout robot standing at the entrance to the trail, right on the edge of the concrete. Aneka marched forward, pulling her pistol and lining it up on the spot where the thing was standing. Knowing where it was she could make out its outline: it was humanoid, shorter than she was, and seemed to have a skeletal structure rather than her smooth contours. She opened her mouth and let out a burst of what sounded like static. ‘De-cloak and identify yourself.’

Now the radar image showed the two warbots stopping. The scout’s body resolved itself into a metal exoskeleton, humanoid in shape with a blank face and camera lenses for eyes. Apparently designed for general purpose operations, it had human-style hands and a pistol a little like Aneka’s but smaller attached to one thigh. Its voice sounded, a quick burst of noise which Aneka’s software translated as a soft, male voice. ‘Scout Unit Guad Balla Four-Nine-Three. Interdict operations, area denial. Insurgents identified as human. Indicate condition.’

Aneka recalled stories of Japanese soldiers in the Pacific who had gone on hiding in the jungles, unaware that the war they had been fighting had ended. Were these robots the same? ‘Why are you still operating here?’ That seemed to take the robot by surprise. It paused and Al flashed text messages across her vision as the scout communicated with the other robots.

‘Why would this operative ask that?’

‘Operational parameter change?’

‘Clarify.’

They were definitely all robots. She guessed that they had been left in situ to ensure that the planet was not reoccupied. Left with no updates to their orders and no backup. She spoke before it could. ‘The war ended a thousand years ago. You should have been stood down. No one has operated in this part of space for centuries.’ She lowered her pistol and then slipped it into its holster. ‘Return to your base and wait for orders.’

‘Conflict concluded?’

‘New orders?’

‘Request authentication.’

‘I have no idea what your authentication codes are. Your orders were issued too long ago. Stand down and await further orders.’ She looked at the robot and waited, her stance neutral. If it came to it, she was moderately sure she could out-draw the thing, but she was hoping it would not come to that.

‘Situation unconfirmed. Stand down. Await further orders.’

‘Withdrawing,’ the scout hissed at her, and then it engaged its camouflage and turned, vanishing into the jungle. On Aneka’s radar image, the warbots began to retreat.

Ella was just about bouncing as Aneka walked back up the ramp into the shuttle. ‘You did it! They left!’

‘I bought us some time,’ Aneka replied, looking around at the faces of the team. ‘You were right, I think. An emulated mind out-ranks a purely synthetic one, and they haven’t had orders from a real commander since the War. They were left here as an area denial task force. They never got told the War had ended so they just went on doing what they were left here to do. I gave them an order and they decided to follow it.’

‘Just like that?’ Monkey asked.

‘I’m not sure how long it’ll hold. They wanted authentication codes. I told them it was too long ago and they seemed to accept that, but if no one comes to give them any they may decide to come get them.’

‘You know,’ Gilroy said, ‘people have found unmanned Xinti squads like this before. The Herosians make a point of blasting them to atoms, but maybe they’ve all been like this. Ancient sentries left without orders to stop, and no one could talk to them to tell them it was over.’

‘That’s horrible,’ Ella said.

‘They’re just robots, Ella,’ Aneka replied.

‘Xinti robots generally have moderately high-level AIs,’ Gilroy replied. ‘Anything they left to operate independently would have volition. Volitional AIs are banned under Federal Law because using them as a computer was considered to amount to slavery. You can find some around still, but they’re old, mostly. Turning them off would have qualified as murder.’

‘Huh. Well, they didn’t seem too bright. I don’t think they’ve exactly suffered.’

‘Still,’ Ella said, ‘we should talk to them. Offer them the chance to surrender.’

Aneka blinked at her, but Bashford spoke. ‘That would be extremely inadvisable.’

‘Think of the information they could give us,’ Gilroy replied.

‘Mom,’ Monkey said, his voice half a whine, ‘are you nuts? You heard the stories Dad told about them.’ Aneka could tell how worried he was; it was the first time he had ever called her ‘Mom.’

‘It would be better to come back with a larger force,’ Bashford said. ‘An armed force.’

‘We couldn’t keep it quiet,’ Gilroy replied. ‘The Herosians will get wind of it and we’ll come back to a cinder.’ Bashford grunted in acknowledgement.

‘Well,’ Aneka said, ‘it’s going to be my arse on the line. I’m the only one who can talk to them. If you think it’s worth the risk, I can try.’

‘This is crazy,’ Monkey said.

Aneka nodded. ‘It’s tactically stupid, but sometimes you have to take risks to win.’

~~~

‘Another hundred metres,’ Patton said over the communications channel from the ship. ‘You may be able to see it now.’

‘Yes,’ Aneka said as her enhanced vision picked out a concealed hatch ahead of her. ‘I’m not sure how you located it from up there.’

‘It showed up as an anomalous heat signature. It’s very well hidden, but it’s a degree or so warmer than the surrounding jungle.’

They had obviously detected her approach; the hatch levered upward as she got closer. It was large enough that you could get a small car out through it. ‘They’re inviting me in. You’re sure about this strategy, Doc? I may lose communications once I’m in there.’

‘I think it’s the most reasonable course of action,’ Gilroy’s voice was confident, maybe overly so. ‘Consider them to be grunt soldiers. Not especially bright ones.’ Well, Aneka was used to those at least. ‘Explain the situation, ask them to stand down and they’ll be treated fairly.’

‘Can we actually guarantee that?’

‘If they’re willing to disarm, I believe so. As I said, creating volitional AIs is illegal, but where they exist they have the same rights as any sentient life form.’

Bashford’s voice cut in to add, ‘The Federal Articles of War state that a surrendering enemy combatant has rights. That includes the right to not be executed on the spot. The Herosians get away with it because no Xinti AI has ever surrendered before.’

Aneka nodded, though they could not see it. Even if these things belonged to the same race that had basically killed her and stuck her in a robot body, these robots had had nothing to do with that, and if they were really sentient she did not want to lie to a fellow soldier. ‘All right, here goes nothing.’ She started down the ramp into the Xinti base.

It looked more like a garage. There were five of the warbots and two scouts, each standing against the walls settled into individual stations. The warbots were bulky things the size of a small car, each with six armoured legs supporting a heavily armoured hull with a T-shaped ‘head’ mounted on top. Two manipulator arms were mounted to the front of the hull, but Aneka was more concerned about the three weapon mounts at the sides and rear since every single one of the robots was tracking her with weapons which looked like they could have taken out a main battle tank.

The two scouts just watched her, each identical machine sitting in a chair-like framework. One of them sat beside a console of some description, connected to it by a thick cable. Presumably this was the sensor suite.

‘Who wants to do the talking?’ Aneka asked. Behind her she heard the hatch shut and Al indicated that communications with the shuttle were out.

One of the scouts, the one not connected to a terminal, rose to its feet and moved closer. ‘You are not Xinti,’ it stated in a hiss of noise. ‘You identify as Xinti, but are not.’

‘No,’ Aneka replied, wondering again about the identification thing. ‘I’m human.’ She frowned. ‘I was human. I was taken from my home world by the Xinti before the War and put into this body. The ship I was travelling on had a catastrophic accident. I was the only survivor, and I was only found by chance after floating in deep space for over a thousand years.’ She paused. ‘But I’m the most Xinti thing you’re going to meet now.’

There was a long pause. No communications chatter, no audible speech. It was as if each robot was assessing her statement and unsure how to respond. ‘Xinti lost war?’ the scout finally said. Al flashed up indicators with the translation; side frequencies suggested disbelief, but something more like shocked disbelief and fear.

‘Yes,’ Aneka replied, ‘but from what I’ve learned since I was reactivated, no one really won. All the combatants suffered huge losses. The galaxy was plunged into chaos for three hundred years. There’s a new federation of the surviving races, but the Xinti were wiped out. There’s no one coming to relieve you or give you orders, except me.’

This time there was a burst of radio chatter. All of them talking over each other until the scout who had been talking to her called for silence. The message Al put up when it spoke stated that the tone was almost pleading. ‘Orders.’

It wanted orders. They were, she realised, slaves. Now they were slaves without purpose, holding a position which would never be reclaimed. ‘If you disarm, I can accept your surrender for the Federation. They have laws. You would be treated as surrendering enemy combatants and treated fairly. I think that this new Federation would view you as they would any other sentient being. You may find your life better than under the Xinti. Two of the Humans here are scientists, historians and archaeologists. They are very interested in what they could learn from you.’ She paused. ‘Look, I’m a soldier, or I was a soldier. If you fight, they’ll send warships and level the planet. You can kill the people here, but others know about you now. If I didn’t believe you’d be treated fairly, I wouldn’t suggest it, but surrender is your best option.’

‘Consideration required,’ the scout said. ‘No hostile action to be initiated. Self will communicate decision within one planetary revolution. Acceptable?’

Aneka nodded. ‘Acceptable.’ She turned and headed for the ramp as the hatch started to open. Al indicated that communications had been re-established as she reached the surface and she spoke silently. ‘They’re considering the terms of surrender. They won’t attack us.’

‘You believe them?’ Monkey’s voice, tense.

‘It was one soldier to another,’ she replied. ‘They won’t attack us, but I don’t know whether they’ll agree to surrender.’

‘What other option have they got?’ Ella asked, clearly a little confused.

Aneka kept walking, her expression grim. ‘They can wait for someone to come and blow the shit out of them, or they can do it themselves.’

7.10.523 FSC.

Gilroy and Ella were working on the site with Bashford assisting. Monkey was at the security console after replacing the destroyed cameras on the trail through the jungle. Aneka sat outside the admin building, her eyes watching the jungle with a window in her vision showing the view from camera fifteen.

According to Al, there was another three hours before the time limit set by the scout, which she was sure was the same one she had talked to in the clearing, was up. She had mixed feelings about the entire business. The thought had come to her as she sat through the night shift that if the robots surrendered they would likely end up as lab rats. The thought had also surfaced that she was going to be in for the same treatment, but she had a human mind and it would be far harder for anyone to lock her up for research purposes. A robot was another matter. And what sort of life was she really offering them? Most Jenlay had a strong dislike of robots. She suspected the law against AIs was as much to do with that as not wanting to deal with the consequences. She at least looked human. She could probably avoid a lot of trouble because of that, but the warbots in particular would never integrate into Federal society.

When the scout appeared in the view from camera fifteen, Aneka began running for the shuttle. By the time she got there, Monkey was standing at the tail ramp, his carbine cradled at the ready. He glanced at her, but he neither moved nor said anything. The scout was standing a few feet onto the broken concrete, silent and unmoving. It was still wearing its pistol and there was a bulky case slung over its shoulder by a strap.

As she approached, it reached to its leg and Aneka snapped a look at Monkey, willing him not to react. The young man looked tense, but he seemed to recognise that the move was not a threat. When she turned back, the scout was holding its pistol at arm’s length by the muzzle.

Aneka took the weapon, nodding. She was a little surprised when it said, ‘Surrender not possible.’ It lifted the case from its shoulder and held it out. Aneka took it and looped the strap over her shoulder. Whatever it was, it was heavy. ‘Purpose negated by cessation of conflict. Our gratitude for honesty and respect expressed in data for research purposes.’

For a second, Aneka thought about trying to argue, but she was not sure she did not agree with the decision. Instead, she raised her hand to her brow in salute. ‘I respect your choice. Thank you for the information.’

It might not have understood what the salute signified, but it seemed to understand her meaning. Its head nodded slowly and then it turned back into the jungle. Aneka turned back and headed for Monkey. The others had joined him now and there was a quizzical look on their faces as Aneka approached.

‘They aren’t surrendering,’ she said, ‘but they wanted you to have this thing.’ She shrugged the shoulder with the case hanging from it. ‘It said it was research data.’

‘That’s a Xinti data storage unit,’ Gilroy said. ‘You couldn’t persuade them to stay?’

Aneka started past them to the ramp. The case was damn heavy and she wanted to put it down somewhere safe. ‘I didn’t try.’

‘Why not?’ Ella asked.

‘Because I think they’ve made the right choice.’ They were possibly being more sensible than she was.

~~~

Thirty minutes later, Drake called down from the Garnet Hyde to tell them that they had detected an explosion where the Xinti base had been located. It had an extremely high thermal reading, probably the result of the detonation of several plasma grenades.

Aneka wished she could get drunk.

Part Three: On the Edge

FScV Garnet Hyde, 2.11.523 FSC.

Aneka lay on her bunk, staring at the ceiling. She was getting a little sick of sterile spaceship interiors, but there was nothing else to look at. She had tried watching various movies, but she did not really understand the cultural references, action movies seemed to have died out, and the comedies were far too reminiscent of 1970s sex romps like Confessions of a Window Cleaner, except with more explicit sex. She had not thought they were that funny the first time around.

With the dig wrapped and all the equipment checked, packed, and stored away in the hold, the facilitator team members were basically off duty, and Aneka would have welcomed the oblivion of cold sleep. Except that no one had come up with a way of putting her to sleep, so that was not going to happen, and anyway they were taking a side-trip so no one was going to sleep.

Five days after the Xinti bots had blown themselves to pieces, another ship had arrived in the Alpha Mensae system. The frigate, the Delta Guantina, had been sent out to assist if the robots had been more trouble than they proved to be. When it turned out that it was a wasted journey, they had left orders that the Garnet Hyde was to stop off in the Harriamon system on their way back for debriefing, and then turned around and left. Aneka had not been overly impressed with the two officers; they had seemed far too disappointed that they were not going to be able to bring enormous weapons to bear on a few relatively unprotected robots.

The door slid open and Ella came in, the smile on her face fading a little as she saw Aneka lying there on the top bunk. Ella had been getting more and more worried about her friend as the days had gone on, though if she were honest about it part of the worry was displacement activity. Harriamon was not her favourite place in the galaxy and she had been less than pleased when she had heard they were going there.

‘You look bored,’ Ella said. ‘Wanna fuck?’

Aneka let out a short bark of a laugh. ‘Sex is not the answer to everything, y’know?’

‘It’s an answer.’ She paused, unsure how to broach the subject which had been bugging her for a while. ‘Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you? You’ve been… well, kind of depressed since the Xinti thing. I’m worried about you.’

Aneka swung her legs off the bed and dropped to the deck with artificially lithe grace. Then she lay down on the lower bunk, putting her back against the wall and patting the mattress beside her. Ella settled into the crook of her arm, plastic shipsuit pressed against skin. It was hard to believe that Aneka was basically a robot: she felt real, even down to the warmth of her body seeping through the suit. As Aneka curled an arm around Ella’s waist, Ella’s hand stroked up over her shoulder, feeling the perfect skin, the tiny hairs.

‘We’re heading back toward civilisation,’ Aneka said, her voice soft and her breath making the skin on Ella’s neck tingle. ‘What happened with the Xinti bots made me think about the reaction I’m going to get, and then those Navy guys turned up… Did you see the way they looked at me?’

‘Yes.’ Actually she had wanted to smack the frigate’s first officer silly. Her rational mind told her that the majority of Jenlay had a dislike of robots and these men knew what Aneka was. They were acting on basic fears, difficult to overcome. But Aneka was a person, damn it! She had not asked to be turned into a mind in a metal body. You just had to talk to her…

‘I can’t help thinking that I might have been better off if I’d never woken up. Lots of people are going to be just like those sailors. I’m a freak, Ella.’

‘You’re not–’

‘The only bit of me that’s human is a simulation of my mind. I’m Aneka Jansen’s ghost animating a dead body. I’m not just a robot in a society which hates robots, I’m a robot that thinks it’s a human. My heart’s artificial, my pulse is simulated. I can see your heart beating with the cameras I see out of. Mine just pumps.’

‘Then you can see my eyes too. I’m just as much a freak as you are, at least in most people’s eyes. You know your identification won’t tell anyone you’ve got cybernetic parts unless they have clearance to see that. Most people aren’t going to know. We wouldn’t know if we hadn’t scanned you when we found you.’ She frowned and put her finger to Aneka’s lips before further worries could be expounded. Then she reached up and hit one of the buttons on the headboard console. ‘Narrows to Patton. Shannon? Are you busy?’

The reply came after a short pause. ‘Not really. I was watching a vid.’

‘Could you come down to my cabin?’

‘Another threesome?’

Ella giggled. ‘Sex isn’t the answer to everything.’ Aneka rolled her eyes. ‘I need your talents.’

‘Okay. I’ll be right over.’

‘Her talents?’ Aneka asked.

‘Yeah,’ Ella replied, ‘she’s a wizard with a vibrator.’ Aneka swatted her on the arm.

Patton appeared through the door wearing a tabard-like robe in a light, silky material a few seconds later and padded across to sit down on one of the benches opposite the bunks.

‘Drake’ll kill you if he sees you out of your cabin in that,’ Ella commented.

‘He’s busy in the cockpit, and he’s expecting to find me naked and hungry when he comes down. He’ll forgive me about two minutes after I’ve wrapped my lips around his cock. What did you want?’

Ella rolled off the bed and sat down beside Patton, her eyes on Aneka. ‘Aneka thinks she’s a freak.’

The green-eyed blonde looked at Aneka for a second or two. ‘I started hearing people’s thoughts when I was seven. Didn’t understand what was happening at first. I’d answer questions I hadn’t been asked, that kind of thing. When I hit puberty it really ramped up and I couldn’t stop hearing them, even if I tried.’

‘It must be… weird.’

‘If I concentrate on one person it’s not so bad, but it is a little weird, yes. I hear what someone’s saying in my head just before the sound comes out, and sometimes it’s horribly embarrassing. The real problem is that I can’t block it out entirely even when I’m not trying. If I’m near anyone that thinks then I can hear it, like a noise in my head. It’s distracting and, um, I’m mildly addicted to painkillers from the headaches. It’s the reason I have my own cabin out away from all the others. It gives me a chance to have silence every so often.’ She paused and then said, ‘So, basically, welcome to Club Freak.’

Ella gave out a squeak. ‘Hey, I brought you here to help her.’

‘I am. Look, as soon as someone knows what I am they start acting like I’m snooping on their thoughts all the time. I don’t, I wouldn’t. For fuck’s sake, why would I even want to know what most people are thinking?! People have thrown fits over your eyes. Monkey and I were stupid about Aneka until we got to know her.’ She stared hard at Aneka. ‘That’s the point. That’s the point I had to learn and, actually, it took my talking a friend out of suicide to make me realise that I may be a freak, but I’ve got talents that make me a useful member of society. So do you. You saved four people’s lives, Aneka. Doesn’t that mean anything? To the people who matter, on this ship and outside it, it will mean something.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Rationally, you’re right, but I’ve faced prejudice before and I didn’t like it then.’

‘When?’ Ella asked.

‘Having tits in the Army didn’t make life easy. Either they see the breasts and forget the rest, or they assume you’re too weak to do the job. I had to work twice as hard to be thought half as good. I went into freelance work because people there were more inclined to worry about what I could do than about whether I would be a distraction to the men.’

‘So you’ve faced this kind of thing before and you got past it,’ Patton said. ‘You’re not supposed to like it. It’s not likeable. It’s stupid and deplorable, but people are what they are. You said it yourself, you had to try harder to make people think you could do your job, but you’re clearly capable of it. This time around you have to make people like you even though they may not like what you are. Well, you’re beautiful, sexy, charismatic, I bet you know how to act to make people want you. In our society, that’ll get you a long way.’

‘Huh,’ Aneka grunted. ‘Can’t I just feel sorry for myself for a couple more days?’

‘As far as I’m concerned, sure,’ Patton replied, ‘but if it’s interfering with Ella’s sex life I doubt she’ll let you.’

5.11.523 FSC.

‘Jansen to the bridge,’ Patton’s voice sounded over the ship’s intercom speakers. Aneka looked up at the ceiling with a frown and then reached down to pull on her suit.

‘I’m coming,’ Ella said, bouncing up and reaching for her own suit.

‘You smell like a Turkish brothel.’

Ella just giggled. ‘One of the nice things about a shipsuit is that it tends to keep that kind of thing under wraps. Besides, they won’t care.’

Aneka shrugged and closed the seal on her leotard. ‘I’m not the one that’s going to have various fluids running down her thighs. Why are you coming anyway?’

‘Because we’re probably moving into orbit around Harriamon Three and I want to see it too.’

Aneka grunted. ‘Civilisation.’ She watched Ella seal her suit and then started for the door.

‘Yeah, you said that before, but Harriamon’s a Rim world. It’s about as far from civilisation as you can get and still be in the Federation.’

‘Oh.’

‘Still, we’ll need to get Al configured to respond to the ident squawks.’

‘Ident squawks? I must’ve missed that in basic training.’

‘The dream learning? Didn’t anyone try picking you up by transmitting their contact data to you? Building systems seemed to know who you were without you saying anything?’

‘Uh… yeah, now you mention it.’ She paused for a second. ‘Actually, they didn’t try to pick me up…’

Ella giggled. ‘Those simulations are amazingly real. And no consequences so you can just drop your inhibitions.’

‘You don’t have any inhibitions!’

Ella pouted. ‘I do! Some. A few small ones… Anyway, hypocrisy alert. There’s not a person over the age of sixteen that doesn’t have one cybernetic implant. It’s a biological monitoring and identity unit that’s placed just behind the clavicle. Any authorised system can trigger it to squawk various levels of identity information, and medics can use it to help with diagnosis and treatment.’

Aneka blinked. ‘You’re all LoJacked?’

‘I… don’t understand the term.’

‘Back in my day, people would fit gadgets to cars which could transmit their location if they were stolen. Criminals would be tagged with something similar to keep them within a designated area. Some parents used to do it with their kids’ mobile phones. It was called LoJacking after the car security brand. Doing it to people had a load of civil liberty implications.’

‘Security and convenience won out. Your house knows it’s you at the door, or a guest you’ve invited. Your car only works for you. Vending machines can get your data and charge your account automatically. Medical emergencies are far easier to deal with. People have been saved by these things.’

Aneka gave a sigh. ‘If someone gives me the protocols, Al can replicate the interchanges necessary.’ They had arrived at the bridge and she reached up to press the button beside the door which requested entry. There was something which had not changed since her day: the door to the main control area of the craft was kept locked at all times. There was no perceptible pause before the door opened and they walked in to find Drake and Patton monitoring the ship’s progress toward Harriamon III.

‘I figured you’d come up as well, Ella,’ Drake commented. ‘We’re on path for high-orbit insertion. Matching speed with Harriamon Naval Station.’

The planet itself was nothing but dense cloud. Most of it was white with bands of grey, but Aneka could see faint splotches of yellow and orange which seemed to be under the outer layers. Of the surface there was no sign at all. The place looked like the pictures she had seen of Venus and she recalled that that was not a nice place for a vacation.

‘People live on that?’

‘Mostly under it,’ Ella replied. ‘There are a couple of habitation domes and various surface installations, but the majority of the people down there live underground. Miners, mostly. There are some surface facilities for the military. Rest and recreation. Sports, shops, prostitutes.’

‘It sounds like a garden spot.’

‘The atmosphere is nitrogen, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, sulphuric acid, more or less no free oxygen. All of it at about one-point-two atmospheres and nine hundred kelvin. No one can live on the surface.’

‘You seem to know it pretty well.’

‘I was born on that goshidwee. I absolutely hate the place.’

‘Go-she-what?’

‘Sorry, that’s Rimmic. It means… “Pile of dung?” “Shit heap?” Something like that. It’s like “gopi” which is “shit” as an exclamation.’

Aneka grinned. ‘I’ll try to remember that.’

The ship’s orientation changed and something else came into view. It was some form of station. A huge structure formed of three drums connected together by cross-scaffolding. It had to be over six hundred metres across, a little longer than it was wide. A ring of gleaming solar panels circled part of the lower drum, and Aneka could see small ships moving in and out of huge doors on the middle and lower drums, and there were larger ones floating alongside it. One of them was huge, a long, slim, slab of metal with a sloping prow. Its hull shone in the sunlight and bristled with weapons turrets.

‘That’s an Admiral Class, isn’t it?’ Patton said. ‘What’s one of those doing at this place?’

Drake’s gaze shifted from his screen to the huge ship. ‘That’s the Admiral Banfry.’

‘That’s the ship Monkey’s father captains, isn’t it?’ Aneka said. She knew it was; Monkey had told her.

‘Yes it is,’ Drake replied. ‘It looks like Ape Gibbons is taking a personal interest in this.’

Aneka frowned. They had sent a battleship to meet an archaeology team, to meet her. Somehow that did not make her feel happy.

Harriamon Naval Station

The size of the station was brought into sharp focus by the fact that a three-hundred-tonne ship like the Garnet Hyde could just slide into one of its hanger bays without even coming close to the edges. Docking struts extended to lock the ship in place, and then a bridge was extended out to meet one of the airlocks.

Drake and Patton stayed on the ship’s bridge, finalising the shutdown of flight systems, but the rest of the team headed off the ship as soon as the latches were secured. Aneka was more or less expecting what they found in the reception area on the other side of the gangway and had left her belt and gun in Ella’s cabin, the pistol packed away in its case. The others looked a little more surprised to see a squad of six armed soldiers waiting for them along with a man who had to be Captain Gibbons.

He was huge. Not especially tall, but broad in the chest and shoulders, and all of his mass seemed to be muscle from the way he filled out his military-green shipsuit. He did look a lot like Monkey, though older with a more Roman nose and a broader chin. He also shaved his head, though it looked like he had to do that a fair bit from the stubble he was showing. His dark eyes fixed on the one member of the team not wearing a shipsuit as soon as Aneka appeared through the hatch.

‘Ape,’ Gilroy said, her voice carrying a pleased tone. ‘You know you didn’t have to come all the way out here to check on us.’

Ape Gibbons had a pleasing baritone which carried more than a hint of firm authority. ‘Much as I’d love to say that was the case, Gillian, I’m here for Miss Jansen.’

‘What? She’s under contract to the University. She’s a member of my facilitation team.’ Aneka was rather pleased by the hard edge developing in Gilroy’s voice as she went on.

‘And you organised that without consulting the Administration. The captain of the Delta Guantina made his report concerning the Xinti machines you discovered, and that added to the information you transmitted through raised a lot of red flags.’ The big man’s gaze shifted back to Aneka. ‘We’re to detain you for questioning, Miss Jansen. The Federal Administration wants to be sure of your allegiance.’

‘Dad,’ Monkey said, moving between Aneka and the men who were now raising the muzzles of their carbines, ‘she saved our lives. We’d be dead if it wasn’t…’ Aneka could see the tension in his body. She wondered how much effort it had taken to stand up to his father, and for a Xinti machine at that.

‘The Delta Guantina was sent to pull you out before you could be harmed,’ Ape snapped.

‘We’d have been blood stains on the walls five days before they got there!’ He started to step forward, and then stopped and turned as Aneka put her hand on his shoulder.

She gave him a smile. ‘Thank you, David. Your father is just doing his job.’ Walking past, she ignored the men now aiming their weapons at her. ‘All right, Captain, let’s get this over with.’

Ape nodded. ‘Take her up to the holding cell,’ he said to one of the soldiers. His voice rose in intensity. ‘And treat her with respect. If she’s hurt I’ll have your hides.’

As Aneka walked away she heard raised voices behind her. It seemed like a short exchange and it ended with Gilroy yelling, ‘Get the fuck away from me Tor Gibbons! I knew you were career military, but I never knew you were such an asshole!’ Gillian Gilroy could swear; who knew?

6.11.523 FSC.

For an interrogation room, it was really quite pleasant. A little sterile with the white, plastic-coated walls and the textured metal floor, but better than the concrete cell Aneka had been in when she did her course on resisting interrogation. There was also a gleaming metal table, very polished and pristine. The seating arrangements were less pleasant: she was sitting in a metal chair, her ankles locked to the chair legs and her arms forced down behind her back, shackles holding her at the wrists and around her upper arms. She suspected this was supposed to be for the safety of her interrogators, if they ever showed up.

She had been left in a cell with a very thick, windowless door overnight, and brought up to this room at nine-thirty in the morning. If they were keeping her waiting in an attempt to disorient her, they were wasting their time, and hers. The clock in the corner of her vision told her she had been waiting for thirty-eight minutes when the door hissed open and three people walked in.

Ape Gibbons remained standing just inside the door, his hand resting on the butt of some sort of pistol he had strapped at his hip. The other two were new. Aneka pegged one of them as an android almost instantly; he moved into the room smoothly, no wasted action, and pulled out a chair for the woman who was last in. She sat and her bodyguard, because that was what Aneka figured the man was, stepped back. Aneka hoped the chairs were uncomfortable; hers was.

‘Good morning, Miss Jansen.’ The speaker was the woman. Aneka would have put her in her early twenties if it was not for her eyes. This was a shrewd, intelligent woman with too much life under her belt for the way she looked. Attractive, like almost everyone was attractive, she had a bob of blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pretty but unremarkable face. She was dressed in a standard, white shipsuit which showed off a trim figure. An intelligence agent of some sort, she had to be.

‘Morning,’ Aneka replied.

‘My apologies for keeping you waiting,’ the woman said. ‘I was delayed getting to the station. We are here to determine your purpose.’

‘I don’t have a purpose. I had a job, until you decided to arrest me.’

The woman smiled; it did not reach her eyes. ‘The purpose the Xinti made you for.’

‘Oh, that. They wanted me to gather information on Humans.’

‘I see…’

‘But that was eleven hundred years ago. The Xinti are, I’m told, dead. The planet they wanted me to do this information gathering on is, I’m told, dead. So, if I had a purpose, it’s dead too.’

The woman smiled again. She did not like being interrupted. No, she was not used to it. She was someone important, high ranking, and everyone else knew it and deferred to her. ‘The report filed by Doctor Gilroy and Captain Drake stated that your indoctrination was incomplete.’ Aneka looked at her, waiting for a question. After a second or two, the woman broke. ‘Would you care to comment?’

‘Conditioning.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Conditioning, not indoctrination.’ Aneka was not really sure what the distinction was, or the importance of the pedantic correction, but she felt it was needed. ‘They called it conditioning.’

‘Whatever the case, it was not completed?’

‘From what I remember, the head alien body-snatcher was annoyed that his work was being interrupted. He claimed I might develop greater resistance in future and should be put in stasis until the problem could be resolved. It never was.’

‘And yet you let seven Xinti combat robots go without attacking them,’ Ape said.

‘Hmm, yes,’ Aneka replied, her tone musing. ‘I probably should have opened fire on them. That way when the five heavily armoured war robots blasted me and everyone else to crap I’d have had the satisfaction of knowing I’d put a dent in their armour.’

‘They were Xinti…’

She cut him off. ‘They were robots. Computers. They didn’t choose to be stuck on that rock for centuries waiting for someone to come and relieve them. They were grunts. Soldiers just like I used to be and you are, and they elected to kill themselves rather than give themselves up. And from where I’m sitting, they were right.’ From his expression, he did not like being interrupted either.

‘Our intelligence regarding the Xinti,’ the woman said, ‘indicates that they were ruthless. They attacked without provocation and it took the combined efforts of three races, and the near annihilation of all of us, to bring them down. Every Xinti we have ever met has attacked on sight, without any attempt to communicate, and given no quarter.’

‘Did you ever try talking to them? You don’t even know how they communicated. Drake and Patton thought they were picking up radio noise bursts. How do you know all those Xinti you’ve been blowing apart haven’t been desperately trying to surrender?’

Ape’s face stiffened, though Aneka could not tell whether it was the idea she was proposing or that she was proposing it at all. Maybe it was both: people did not usually like to have their past decisions questioned. ‘Look,’ Aneka went on, ‘I get it, I really do. You had a huge war with the Xinti and it almost wiped out everyone. You don’t like the Xinti. I don’t like them much either since they kidnapped me and my men, killed us all, and then stuffed what’s left of my mind in this body. But I’m not a Xinti.’

‘You let an entire squad of them live though,’ Ape said.

Aneka looked across the room at him, her eyes narrowing. ‘I gave some Xinti slave-soldiers the choice of surrendering and they chose to destroy themselves instead. Have you ever killed anyone, Captain Gibbons? Close up? Face-to-face, not ship-to-ship?’

‘There has been no conflict in the Federation much larger than actions against pirate ships for far longer than Captain Gibbons has been alive,’ the woman said.

‘No,’ Gibbons added flatly, ‘I haven’t.’

‘Back home, Old Earth in my time, we had plenty of wars, but a lot of them were being fought like you’d be used to. Men sat in rooms miles from the front line and piloted remote drones. They tracked down their target and blew them up with missiles. Don’t get me wrong, these were generally bad people who deserved to die, but you don’t get the same feeling for the people you’re fighting that way. I was in Kandahar, summer of oh-seven, hot as Hell and I was on this shit bodyguard detail for the CEO of a mining company. They were hosting a cocktail party for some local dignitaries. Most of them were Muslim so there was no alcohol. Stupid idea. Anyway, there I was in this swanky hotel surrounded by men who thought my evening dress looked really amazing on me, and that I was a Western whore, and this girl comes out of one of the back rooms. She’s running at one of the visiting politicians with a knife and I stepped in front of her and put my knife in under her ribs and pushed up. She never said anything. She just looked at me like she was saying “I failed,” until the light went out in her eyes.’

‘So, you killed a terrorist,’ Gibbons said.

‘No, I killed a girl who wanted to kill the man who had sent her brother to his death. The guy she’d been after had ordered some troops to fight to the death while he was sneaking out the back of the camp. She’d been going to kill a corrupt, morally repugnant man, but not for politics, for her family, and all she’d done was die in my arms. I had to watch her dying, right there, while I held her.’ She swallowed. ‘So, I paid to have the girl’s body given a proper funeral, and a couple of months later, when the negotiations were over and our clients didn’t need him, the man she had been going to kill was found in a back alley with his throat slit. When you kill someone, it’s personal, you know them, empathise with them, know it’s going to be your turn eventually. I killed those robots. I knew they wouldn’t give themselves up when I offered them surrender.’ Her attention shifted from Gibbons to the woman. ‘Can you honestly say that they’d have been treated fairly if they had given themselves up?’

The woman seemed to come to a decision, pushing back her chair and getting to her feet. ‘Someone will be in shortly to get you out of those restraints. You’ll be taken to a rather irate Miss Narrows. You are not under arrest, but you should stay in your room until we can send a technician down to get your identification system configured. The base’s systems won’t let you go very far before then anyway.’

‘Thank you,’ Aneka said.

‘It’s not quite over, I’m afraid. You’ll continue on to New Earth. The University there has excellent scanning equipment and they will be running a number of deep scan tests to ensure that the Xinti have not planted any hidden surprises in you. Their psychologists will perform some more extensive interviews to evaluate your mental state.’ She smiled, and this time it did touch her eyes. ‘I’d imagine they will be rather keen to gather as much information as they can on you anyway.’

Aneka gave her a half-grin in return. ‘Yeah, I’d imagine they will. I didn’t get your name.’

‘No, I didn’t give one. You can call me Winter.’ With that she started for the door and soon Aneka was alone once again.

~~~

As expected, Ella was pleased to see Aneka as she walked into the cabin they were going to share. She was even more pleased when the two guards nodded to her and then left, the door closing behind them. The room was more spacious than the little cabin aboard the Garnet Hyde with a similar sort of shower cubicle, but a double bed instead of bunks and a desk with a computer system on it.

‘You’re out,’ she said, somewhat redundantly, her words muffled because her face was pressed against Aneka’s neck. If Aneka had had to breathe she might have been in trouble.

‘And confined to this cabin until some tech turns up to sort out this transponder business.’

Ella’s head lifted, her expression eager. ‘Confined to the cabin?’

Aneka reached down, fingers pressing against Ella’s sex through the thin plastic of her suit. ‘Confined.’

‘I’ve got a roll of setaestrip tape,’ Ella moaned.

~~~

‘You wanted to see me, Dad?’ Monkey had not been especially happy that one of his father’s aides had sent a message asking for a meeting. He had agreed, however; you did not say no to Captain Tor Gibbons. So he had come down to the office his father was using on the station.

‘David,’ Ape acknowledged. ‘Have a seat.’ Monkey felt himself hunching as he sat down across the desk from his father and consciously straightened his back. ‘We’ve set the Jansen android free subject to testing at New Earth University.’

‘Good. She didn’t deserve that treatment.’

Ape grunted. ‘I want you to stay away from it. I can have you taken back to New Earth on the Marigo Benson. Your mother is too stubborn to…’

‘Her,’ Monkey said, his voice low, but the fact that he had spoken at all stopped Ape’s speech.

‘Pardon?’

‘Her. You want me to stay away from her. Aneka isn’t an “it.”’

Ape let out a sigh; it sounded long-suffering. ‘It charmed you too. You were awake with it during its facilitator training, right? Did you sleep with it?’

‘What? No. You saw to that.’ Monkey could not remember being angry with his father, well, ever. Thinking about it, that was probably because the man had never been around to be strict. ‘All your stories about the Xinti. If I didn’t get embarrassed about coming on to beautiful women I’d have been too scared to ask her. She knew I was nervous of her, she didn’t try anything.’

This time Ape laughed, a short, indulgent bark. ‘Son, I never understood why you felt insecure around women you like, but I think it’s stopped you learning a few valuable lessons. Of course it didn’t try to seduce you. Its job is infiltration, to lull you into…’

Monkey got to his feet, the abrupt movement once again interrupting his father. ‘You know, with all those tales you used to tell me about the Xinti, it never occurred to me that you’ve never actually met one. There hasn’t been contact with a Xinti of any kind for… a couple of centuries until Alpha Mensae Four? You were just telling a kid horror stories about something passed down through the ranks. I’ll be going back to New Earth on the Hyde, and I’ll associate with the people I trust.’

Ape got to his feet as his son turned and started for the door. ‘David…’ But Monkey ignored him.

~~~

The tech turned out to be a slightly nervous young man, typically attractive, blonde, the kind of person Aneka would have classified as a surfer dude if she thought surfing was still a sport and they were not on a space station. His name was Brad, which did not help. The nervousness, she was pretty sure, was down to the fact that his assignment required him to know what she was. It certainly was not bashfulness.

‘They, uh, really did a good job on that body,’ he said as he set up his equipment, which was basically a couple of computerised devices. Aneka recognised one as a signal analyser.

‘Thank you, it’s basically the same as my real one.’ She sat on the edge of the bed to wait for him to be ready. ‘They perked my breasts up a bit and turned my hair white, but this is how I remember looking, more or less.’

‘Huh, I guess there were pretty people back then too.’

‘A couple, yes.’

He turned to look at her, sitting on the bed with her hands hooked around one knee and no clothes on, and then he swallowed and said, ‘All right, I have no idea how we’re going to do this. I’ve got a software package that was developed for a volitional AI about ten years ago, but I’ve no idea whether your computer can run it…’

Messages flickered up from Al and Aneka read them before replying. ‘I don’t suppose you have the instruction set for the AI’s processor available?’

‘Uhhh…’ He turned to his other box and tapped rapidly at a keyboard. ‘Just give me a second… It was a Baltram-Mayes Quantum Bi-Matrix Two-Twenty… Yes! I can upload that and the software if you can negotiate a connection.’

A stream of in-vision text showed Aneka the negotiation progress. Al had already worked out how to interface with the systems on the Garnet Hyde, and the shuttle, and all of the wireless-enabled equipment she had had to use. The portable microframe Brad was using was easy, and the next display to pop up showed the file transfer progress of the two files.

‘So what’s it like?’ Brad asked, his eyes following the transfer progression on his own screen.

‘What’s what like?’

‘Being… well, a sort of robot, I guess.’

People asked the dumbest questions. ‘When I first woke up I couldn’t tell anything was different. Now… I never used to have computers displaying things inside my eyes before. Uh, mine is translating your program for his instruction set.’

‘Good, that sounds great.’

‘Really, the world has changed around me more than I’ve changed. There’s all this Big Brother bullcrap…’ She waved her hand at Brad’s computer. ‘My family, friends… planet are all a thousand years dead. On the plus side, I’m getting a lot more sex.’ He coughed, smirking at her, and she added, ‘Al’s ready to try out your software. He’s identified the data components and replaced them with my stuff.’

‘Al?’

‘My computer. I had to call him something. Hal was out.’

Brad’s fingers moved across keys, summoning up a test program. ‘Uh, why?’

‘You probably wouldn’t get the reference.’ A window popped up in her vision field, a request for her personal identifier, the public part of her ident-key. ‘Your program asked for my public ident?’

‘A voluntary request, yes,’ Brad replied, grinning. ‘Looks like it’s working. Could you accept it?’ He nodded at his screen. ‘Perfect. I’ll run the rest of the diagnostic sequence. These are the non-voluntary commands.’ His eyes flicked to his signal analyser as he hit the ‘go’ button.

Aneka watched as Al displayed the stream of requests as she went through: name, ident-key, name and ident-key. Then the same set of requests went through with an annotation from Al stating that this was a covert request, not to be reported to the receiver. She kept the smile away from her mouth.

‘Three requests?’ Brad asked.

‘Uh-huh.’

Nodding, Brad began packing his equipment away. ‘That’s everything then. I was told to tell you that you could move around freely once that was up and running.’ He glanced around the room. ‘I was also told that you were sharing the room with someone.’

‘Ella got tied up.’

‘Ah, right. Well, it was, uh… nice meeting you.’

‘The same.’ She followed him to the door, allowing it to close behind him and then hitting the locking button to secure it. Then she went back to the bed and pulled the sheet back. Ella was lying there, pillows arranged to make her shape unrecognisable, ankles tethered to the bed frame with tape which would stick securely to anything, and wrists taped to her hips. There was also a strip of tape over her mouth. ‘Now,’ Aneka said, ‘where were we?’

Ella just gave a little whimper in response.

Harriamon III, 7.11.523 FSC.

Walking from the shuttle landing port into the ‘town’ really brought home Ella’s comment about this ‘not being civilisation.’ The tunnel from the port opened onto what amounted to a large cave cut into the rock three hundred metres under the surface. It had to be over five hundred metres across and a hundred metres high, the roof supported on thick pillars at strategic locations. Between them were concrete buildings, mostly low and scruffy, a few tall and just as badly maintained. There was a slightly unnatural, blue tinge to the light from the huge, overhead lamps.

‘There are five more caves like this one,’ Ella said, ‘three for habitation, two for mining operations.’ She sounded a little dejected. ‘There’s also the military facilities along the north tunnel, about a kilometre away. They tend to be better kept up. The mine administrators live up on the surface under the north dome. The south dome is for recreation.’

‘You were born here, right?’ Monkey asked. Aneka had been surprised when he had asked if they would mind if he came down to the planet with them. He had said that he did not want to be on the station. Ella had agreed very quickly and Aneka had gone along with it.

‘Yeah,’ Ella replied, and now she sounded more dejected, ‘don’t remind me.’

‘Come on,’ Aneka said, trying to sound cheerful, ‘I’m sightseeing. This is my first Federation world, there has to be something worth seeing.’

‘We should go up to the south dome,’ Ella replied, appearing to brighten a little. ‘Aside from anything else, there’s a café up there. After a two-hour shuttle trip, I could use the coffee.’

Aneka winced. ‘Lead on. I must admit I wasn’t expecting it to take that long.’

Ella started off across the dusty, concrete floor, heading left toward what looked like the opening of a road tunnel at the side of the cavern.

‘When we did the drop from the Garnet Hyde to Alpha Mensae,’ Monkey said, falling into step beside Aneka, ‘we were in low orbit, about two hundred kilometres up. The station is up around twenty thousand kilometres. The deceleration time was way shorter and we didn’t have to worry about other traffic.’

‘Huh, yeah, I guess.’ As they entered the concrete-lined tunnel, Monkey moved to put himself between the wall and Aneka, and she could not figure out why until she saw the enormous, tracked vehicle rolling toward them. She frowned. ‘Is that a robot?’

‘Yeah,’ Monkey replied nervously. ‘A big one.’

‘Ore transporter,’ Ella supplied, turning left again about ten metres down the tunnel. The room she had entered was lined with six sets of lift doors, and she headed for the nearest pair and stabbed the button beside it. ‘The cavern structure isn’t exactly brilliantly designed. The transports have to go through there to get to the spaceport.’

‘So that tunnel leads to one of the mining caverns?’ Aneka asked.

Ella nodded, turning as the lift doors opened. ‘You don’t want to go down there. It’s restricted to mining personnel, mostly, it’s boring, and… it’s just not very nice.’ The car rose smoothly, with barely any feeling of acceleration, and fifteen seconds later the doors were opening again. Ella led the way out into a corridor which ended in an airlock door structure. ‘This is just in case,’ Ella said as they waited for the inner doors to shut and the outer doors to open. ‘There’s never been a dome breach on Harriamon, but it’s one of those things you get paranoid about.’ The outer doors opened and Aneka blinked.

Above them, a huge geodesic dome held back a thick, dull-orange atmosphere. It was technically day outside, but there was little light filtering through. Still, the dome was filled with light from the numerous lamps mounted over its surface. Beneath the glass, the place looked like a city park. There were manicured lawns, tall, spreading trees, privet hedges. People dressed in shorts and T-shirts were running along some of the paths, there were a couple of families having picnics on the grass. Two or three people were actually sunbathing, lying nude under the sunlight lamps.

‘It looks like a London park,’ Aneka commented, ‘with naked people.’ A hundred metres away, across a central grassy circle, was a low building in a far better state than the buildings below. There were chairs and tables around it. ‘That the café?’

‘That’s it,’ Ella said. ‘Come on, I could use the pick-me-up.’

They sat at one of the outside tables and Ella undid the seal on her shipsuit as she sat down. Monkey shook his head at her, grinning. ‘I have to admit, it’ll be nice to get home and wear clothes that aren’t sealed to your skin,’ he said. He nodded to Aneka. ‘You’re lucky in that respect. You can survive a hull breach without a suit.’

‘And you’d be okay if the dome failed,’ Ella said. ‘Initially anyway. I doubt you’d last long in that atmosphere.’

Aneka raised an eyebrow as Al displayed her prognosis for exposure to the outside atmosphere. ‘Apparently my underlying chassis is well up to the task. I’d lose my skin fairly rapidly though. I figure I’d make it to the airlock before it became dangerous.’

‘Let’s avoid that,’ Ella suggested. ‘I like your skin.’

‘Good afternoon.’ The waitress was pretty, very perky, and wearing a near-transparent, low-cut maid’s dress. Sex, apparently, still sold, even in a future where it was ubiquitous. ‘I’m Pristy, your waitress. Would you like paper or electronic menus? Or are you ready to order?’

‘Triple-shot cinnamon mocha,’ Ella said immediately, and the girl took a PDA-like device from behind her back, flicking through some on-screen menus to place the order.

‘Iced latte,’ Monkey said.

The girl’s gaze shifted to Aneka. ‘Coffee, black, no sugar, no flavours.’ The woman’s eyebrows raised. ‘And I’ll pay.’

‘My world,’ Ella said, ‘my treat.’

‘My first opportunity to really spend money. I’ve got to do this sometime and the University should have paid me something by now.’

The waitress had an even more quizzical expression on her face now, but she pointed her gadget at Aneka and pressed a button. Al popped up an in-vision window indicating the price, fifty credits, and asking for a tip amount and authorisation. Aneka knew the typical tip percentage was fifteen per cent from her dream training. She dropped ten credits extra on the bill and signalled authorisation. The girl’s eyes lit up like a beacon. ‘Thank you, Miss,’ she gushed. ‘I’ll be right back with your drinks.’ Al popped up another little message as the girl turned away; she had sent Aneka her contact details.

‘How much did you tip her?’ Ella asked.

‘Ten credits. I know it’s over the odds, but…’

‘Way over,’ Monkey said. ‘They’re lucky if they get five per cent out here.’

Aneka rolled her eyes. ‘I guess my training didn’t cover Rim culture. That probably explains why she dropped me her number.’

‘Probably,’ Ella agreed, giggling. ‘Okay, now that we’re settled for a bit, the question of what’s up with our Monkey must be broached.’

Monkey sagged in his seat. ‘Does it have to? Can’t I just be coming down here with friends for a day out?’

‘Not really. I’m a psychologist. We’re nosy by nature.’

‘It’s Dad.’ He gave in rather easily; Aneka guessed that between Ella and Patton he was used to not being able to keep his thoughts to himself. ‘He called me to his office yesterday to tell me I was to stay away from Aneka.’

Aneka gave a short chuckle. ‘So instead you go off on a jaunt to the local planet with me. I’m going to assume the meeting didn’t go well.’

He grunted an acknowledgement. ‘I think he said the same thing to Mom and that didn’t go well either.’

‘I don’t want to come between your family.’

‘Oh, you’re not. Not really. I’m thirty-five and Dad still thinks I’m twelve. He’s used to being obeyed.’

‘I noticed he didn’t like being interrupted when they were interviewing me.’

‘I just can’t figure how you got him to release you,’ Monkey said, frowning. ‘He obviously doesn’t trust you. He’s convinced you’re some sort of Xinti infiltrator sent to discover our weaknesses.’

Aneka shrugged, and then closed her mouth as Pristy returned with a tray. The little blonde placed clear mugs of coffee down in front of each of them, giving Aneka a very bright smile. ‘Enjoy your drinks,’ she said, and then headed back to the café building, hips swaying.

Aneka took a sip of not-really-coffee. ‘He wasn’t making the decision. There was a woman there who seemed to be in charge. Called herself “Winter.” She was the one who let me go. What?’ Both Ella and Monkey were looking at her like she had just announced she was actually a man.

‘You met Winter?’ Ella asked.

‘That’s what she called herself. Short, blonde hair, blue eyes, looked to be twenty-something, but she was older. Used to being obeyed. Why?’

‘Winter is the head of the Federal Intelligence Committee and the Federal Security Agency,’ Monkey told her. ‘No one knows who she really is for security reasons. She hardly ever leaves New Earth, as far as anyone knows, but it’s hard to tell because she’s very rarely seen at all. And she came here to interview you!’

‘Swell,’ Aneka commented. ‘I never used to like working with intelligence agencies.’

‘Oh, I doubt she wants you to work for her,’ Monkey replied. ‘It’s one thing to review you as a security threat and decide you aren’t. It’s another to decide to give you a job.’

Aneka lifted her coffee cup in a toast. ‘Amen to that.’

~~~

‘Oo!’ Grabbing Aneka’s arm, Ella darted off toward one of the shops in the first cavern. This resulted in her coming to an abrupt stop: Aneka’s android body was about a hundred kilos of dead weight if she was not choosing to move. Ella looked back and then tried pulling with two hands. ‘Come on, clothes.’

‘What do I need clothes for?’ Aneka replied, amused. Aside from anything else, it was funny watching Ella trying to shift her.

‘Yeah,’ Monkey agreed, ‘what does she need clothes for?’

‘Because you can’t tramp around New Earth in that leotard. People will look at you funny. You need to dress Jenlay if you’re going to look Jenlay.’

Damn, she has a point. Monkey also seemed to come to the same conclusion; he sagged and started toward the shop with all the enthusiasm of a man whose girlfriend has just told him she needs to buy a dress. And not a sexy little black number, something suitable for visiting her maiden aunt. Aneka could not blame him: she had never got on well with clothes shopping.

The shop looked better on the inside than the outside. The paintwork was fresh and clean, the racks were polished, and all the clothes looked like something you might see in a boutique in New York or London. There was one assistant, a smiling brunette in a slim, knee-length skirt and a ruffled blouse.

‘I hate clothes shopping,’ Aneka growled. ‘I’ve no idea what to buy…’

‘Then let me take care of it,’ Ella replied. She gave the assistant a smile and started for the racks. ‘We don’t need much. One outfit to get you from the ship to my place, and my place to somewhere you can buy more.’

‘Your place?’ Aneka found a chair at the back of the shop beside a curtained-off changing room. She was about to sit down when she reconsidered and waved Monkey over to it. He looked suitably grateful.

‘You’re staying with me, aren’t you? At least until we can sort you out a place of your own.’

‘Oh. Yeah, I guess. I hadn’t really thought about it.’ She paused and then added, ‘I didn’t want to assume either.’

Ella giggled. ‘You think I want rid of you just because we’re not stuck on a ship together?’

‘You might have had someone waiting for you.’

The redhead turned and gave Aneka a look. ‘I might have stupidly thought you’d want to sleep with me and my ex, but I’d have mentioned it if there was someone at home.’

‘Sorry.’ Ella nodded and turned back to the racks, pulling something out and waving to the assistant. ‘What do they mine here anyway?’ Aneka asked to change the subject.

‘Copper, nickel, and iridium,’ Ella replied.

‘We have some of the best iridium-bearing ores in the Federation,’ the assistant stated rather proudly. She looked at the item Ella was holding and then back at Aneka, and then headed to a door behind the counter, vanishing into what Aneka guessed was a storeroom while Ella put the whatever-it-was back and turned to a rack of trousers.

‘What’s iridium used for?’

‘A lot of electronics applications,’ Monkey told her. ‘It’s used in experimental antiproton production as well.’

‘Antiproton? As in antimatter?’

He nodded. ‘If they want to produce large amounts they need something like iridium and a particle accelerator.’

‘By large mounts, he means micrograms,’ Ella added. She pulled a pair of black jeans from the rack and wandered over to the small selection of shoes the shop had in. The assistant returned, waiting near the counter while Ella made a choice.

‘You really think I’m a black, lacy bustier sort of girl, Ella?’ Aneka asked, her eyes on the garment the assistant was holding.

‘Trust me,’ Ella replied. She turned holding a pair of black, patent pumps with outrageously high, steel stiletto heels. ‘Try one of these on. I’m guessing the size.’

Shaking her head, Aneka put her hand on Monkey’s shoulder so she could pull off one of her boots. The shoe Ella put down fit perfectly, much to Aneka’s chagrin. Slipping back out of it and picking it up, she accepted the jeans and the other shoe, and the ridiculous top from the assistant, and hobbled into the little changing room.

The basque left her midriff exposed and pushed her bust out. The tops of the cups were black lace, but the thing was actually opaque for a change. Since Ella and the assistant had done an amazing job picking the sizes for the top and shoes, Aneka was a little surprised to find that the jeans, made from a glossy, black Plastex, seemed to be a size too large. She pulled them up her legs, discovering that they were designed to fit around her hips, but as she pulled them together at the front it looked like there was far too much room.

‘I think I need a size smaller in the jeans,’ she called through the curtain.

‘Have you closed the catch yet?’ Ella called back.

Frowning, Aneka hooked the odd catch into place and then pressed it together. There was a click as it locked and then the entire garment shrank around her, pulling tight around her hips and thighs. ‘Oh!’

‘There you go. It’s SensiCloth. Contracts to fit the wearer.’

Aneka slipped on her new shoes and pulled the curtain aside. ‘In my day, people used to get in the bath with their jeans on.’ She walked out onto the shop floor, feeling like she was towering over Ella and the assistant. ‘How do I look? I’ve never really gone for feminine clothing, except for formal dos and dates, and there were never that many of those…’ She stopped. Ella was grinning brightly, and Monkey was looking mildly shocked and going red around the cheeks and throat.

‘Foojen has the figure for that kind of outfit,’ the assistant stated. It did not entirely sound like a sales pitch.

Aneka took another look at Monkey and nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll take them. Have you got a bag I can put the stuff I came in into? I’ll wear these back to the station.’

‘Of course, foojen,’ the assistant replied. Aneka made a note to ask Ella what ‘foojen’ meant. It sounded like an honorific, maybe ‘madam,’ but she was not sure.

With another two hundred credits racked up and her leotard and boots in a designer shopping bag, Aneka walked out of the shop feeling more comfortable than she had when she went in, even if she was wearing stupid shoes. Of course, the last time she had worn heels, and they had not been this high, she had had a normal body. Her new body was perfectly happy with the new balance arrangement and was showing no stress from walking on the balls of her feet.

‘Where to now, oh my glorious guide?’

Ella looked around and pointed at an alley at the side of the shop. ‘The shop where I bought my first vibrator is through there.’

Aneka rolled her eyes. ‘You’re going to give Monkey a complex.’

‘It’s nostalgic,’ Ella countered, starting for the alley.

They were halfway down it when they heard the voice behind them. ‘H-hold it right th-there! I want your c-clothes and any… anything else you got.’

Aneka turned, aware that Monkey was doing the same beside her. The speaker was a boy, probably no older than fifteen, but with the way Jenlay aged she was not sure. He was wearing clothes which had seen better days and holding a smooth, plastic device in his right hand. The way he was pointing it at them, it was presumably a weapon.

‘Sonic stunner,’ Monkey murmured. ‘He probably can’t get both of us if we rush him.’

‘St-stay right there,’ the kid stammered. He was not exactly an experienced criminal. ‘Strip and hand over the bag.’

‘I just bought these,’ Aneka replied, keeping her voice calm. ‘Aren’t you a little young to be playing at mugging?’

‘I ain’t playing, necro.’ He pressed the button on the stunner. There was a dull buzzing sound and Al popped up a message indicating that a sonic beam attack had been used on her.

‘That was… anticlimactic,’ Aneka commented. Taking two quick steps forward, she caught the boy’s wrist and wrenched it sideways. The stunner bounced off the alley wall and the kid let out a cry of pain. Then she followed through, her knee slamming up into his groin, and he let out a squeak before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed onto the dirt. Aneka heard Monkey wincing in sympathy behind her. ‘What do we do with him now?’

‘Call the local cops, I guess,’ Monkey said.

Ella walked over and looked down at their would-be mugger, now curled into a foetal position on the dusty concrete. ‘Just leave him. If he’s lucky, no one will find him and steal his clothes before he wakes up. If we call the cops we’ll spend the rest of the day filling out forms and he’ll end up on a prison station learning to be a better criminal.’

‘That’s kind of cynical,’ Aneka commented as they walked away. ‘I’d have thought the future had better ways of dealing with criminals.’

‘In the core there’s almost no criminality,’ Ella replied. ‘The kind of thing which creates it has largely been engineered out and most people have what they want. Out here the medical facilities aren’t as good and there are more people desperate enough to try stuff like this. Since there aren’t that many criminals in the core, the Federation doesn’t know what to do with the ones it has. They get locked up, off-world.’

‘Huh. Some things don’t change. Okay, what’s a “necro?”’

‘Someone from the Core Worlds,’ Monkey supplied. ‘I’ve no idea why.’

‘It used to be “corpsers,”’ Ella explained. ‘Then someone read a book and heard about “necromancy” and stuff like that. It dates back to last century.’

‘Huh. I’m not one anyway.’

‘People like him tend to think anyone dressed nicely is a necro. Ah, here we are.’ She reached for the door of a shop and Aneka looked up to read the sign: Adele’s Adult Fun Shop.

Monkey let out a groan and Aneka laughed. ‘Hopefully she won’t want me trying anything on in here.’

‘Don’t count on it,’ he replied.

~~~

‘I don’t know why you wouldn’t wear the other outfit back to the station,’ Ella said as they walked back toward the spaceport.

‘Because I draw the line at turning up at the security station dressed in a few faux-leather straps,’ Aneka replied. She was now carrying three bags, mostly because her body did not care much about the extra load.

Ella giggled and Monkey said, ‘I told you she’d have you trying things on.’

‘You did. She tried things on too.’

‘I don’t know why you wouldn’t, Monkey. You’d have looked gorgeous in…’

‘I didn’t think so,’ he interrupted, and then came to a stop at the sight of the two policemen standing beside the tunnel to the port. ‘That doesn’t look good.’

Ella continued walking, a frown on her face. ‘Is there a problem, officer?’ she asked of the nearest of the two men in dark blue slacks, boots, and something like a flak jacket, all over the top of what looked like a blue shipsuit.

‘There’s been a cave-in in the tunnel,’ the man replied. ‘They’re clearing it, but the port is closed until morning. I can provide you with the location of a hotel if you require one, ma’am.’

‘No,’ Ella replied. ‘I can manage.’ She was frowning when she turned around and led her friends back across the cavern. ‘These tunnels don’t cave in. Not since they were first constructed anyway.’

Monkey grunted his agreement. ‘Does seem unlikely. Reinforced Plascrete walls like that don’t fail on their own.’

‘You’re talking sabotage?’ Aneka asked.

‘Could be. Not our problem, though, unless it becomes a problem for everyone.’

‘No,’ Ella agreed. ‘We’ll get a hotel room and fly up in the morning. We’d better contact the Doc and let her know.’

Aneka asked Al to put a call through and a video contact window appeared to show he was trying to reach her. ‘I’m on it.’

‘A room?’ Monkey asked.

Ella shrugged and gave him a grin. ‘We’ve all seen each other naked, why waste money? It’s not like I’m asking you to sleep with Aneka.’

Monkey groaned. ‘Why did you have to say that?’

~~~

The hotel room was in a reputable sort of place in the north dome, though the actual building was half above ground and half below. They had shared the bill and sprung for an aboveground room with two double beds. Right now Aneka and Ella were lying on one while Monkey was lying on the other, his eyes on the video panel which occupied a substantial section of the opposite wall. Technically it occupied the entire wall; Ella had demonstrated selecting wall patterns and pictures as required by the patron when they walked in. However, one section was currently devoted to the local news channels, with Monkey listening to it on a wireless headset so he did not disturb the women.

Not that the women were doing anything much, just lying on the bed, Ella’s head on Aneka’s shoulder. Ella had stripped off her shipsuit once they were in the room, but then so had Monkey. The only one still dressed was Aneka.

‘You said you got those eyes after catching some disease,’ Aneka said, her voice low despite the fact that Monkey could not hear them. ‘You catch that here?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Aneka felt the redhead stiffen a little against her side.

‘You don’t have to…’

‘I was twelve. My father worked in the mines, my mother was a dancer at one of the clubs in Cavern One. One day he took me on a visit to see the mining operations. I was doing a report for school and doing it on my mother’s job was not going to go down well. Anyway, there’s actually some life on this rock, a few extremophiles that actually like the atmosphere out there, and the heat. One of them mutated to handle an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and started colonising the mine areas underground. A type of lichen, actually. It would be fascinating if I hadn’t been exposed to some spores from the stuff while I was down there. My filter mask had a bust seam.’

‘Oh.’

‘It’s difficult to treat, as you can imagine. Something that can live out there is immune to a lot of things, and a lot of the things it isn’t immune to would kill the patient. It started on my eyes because of the moisture, but by the time they had got it under control it had eaten away most of my nose and half of the left side of my face.’ Aneka winced, pulling Ella against her almost involuntarily. ‘It wasn’t so bad for me, really. I couldn’t see what I looked like.’

Aneka laughed half-heartedly. ‘That where you got your bubbly disposition from?’

‘Well, after that it did seem to be kind of stupid to be negative about… things like getting stuck here for a night. My mother decided the only way I was ever going to see again was to get me to one of the Core Worlds. She managed to scrape the money together to leave here and go to New Earth, and then get me the operations I needed. They reconstructed my face and put in the new eyes. It cost a lot of money. Mom never told me how she got it all, but I think she had to do some pretty distasteful things to make the extra credits.’

‘Where’s she now?’

‘New Earth. She still dances. The club she works at is nicer than the one here and she actually loves the work. She–’

‘Sound to room speakers,’ Monkey said, interrupting her, and the room piped the audio from the news channel through.

‘…are sketchy currently, but it is thought that around eighty people were in the port when the bomb was detonated. No demands made have been communicated to the press, but the terrorists appear to belong to the group known as “the Knights of the Void,” an anarchist group thought to have been responsible for the destruction of the CSV Blue Auriga two years ago. Once again, terrorists have assaulted the Harriamon Shuttle Landing Port and have taken hostages.’

‘Not a cave-in then,’ Aneka said. ‘We may be stuck here for more than one night.’

‘You think?’ Ella asked. It sounded like a genuine question.

‘Depends on the actual situation and the intelligence the police have. They won’t want to risk storming the place, assuming they can get to it, unless they’re sure of what they’re up against. They’ll risk losing hostages. And that’s assuming the terrorists don’t have explosives. I’d imagine it wouldn’t be too hard to bring the roof down and cut the planet off entirely.’

‘Not entirely,’ Ella said. ‘The commercial port, where the metals are shipped out of, is in a separate cavern. They’re only holding the passenger port. And there’s the military facility which has its own landing pads.’

Aneka frowned. ‘That makes relatively little sense. Unless that was the easiest to take.’ She shrugged. ‘Nothing we can do about it. Put a movie on or something, Monkey. Maybe I can get used to what passes for humour these days.’

8.11.523 FSC.

Aneka woke to an odd chirping sound and it took her a second to realise that it was not in the room. There was a message in her vision field indicating that there was an incoming call from a blocked source identifier. Assuming it was Gilroy checking up on them, she was surprised when the video feed showed the unassuming face of Winter.

‘Miss Jansen, I’m sorry for waking you. I need to discuss something with you, privately.’

‘You’re on my internal feed,’ Aneka replied.

‘Very well. You’re aware of the terrorist situation at the spaceport?’

‘I’ve seen the local news channel’s report.’

‘Indeed. What they aren’t reporting is what the terrorists want and what they plan to do if their demands are not met. They’ve smuggled a micro-nuke into the port…’

‘What’s the yield?’

‘One kilotonne. Not huge, but in the confined space of the Harriamon facilities, quite enough to kill everyone in the town.’

‘And I assume you’ve some rule about not negotiating with terrorists?’

Winter smiled her humourless smile. ‘We prefer not to, but we will under the right circumstances. In this case it isn’t an option. They are demanding the dissolution of the Federal government.’

‘I see your point, but why are you contacting me?’

‘There is one way of getting into the port which they will not be expecting, largely because it is technically impossible to use. There’s an electrical ducting system between the cargo port and the passenger port. It has little air and it’s very cramped, and it would take a hydraulic jack to lift the access panel at the far end. It’s useless to an assault team…’

‘But I could maybe crawl through it and I’m strong enough to lift the panel.’

The blonde woman nodded. ‘There’s no time to evacuate the population through the military port, and they’ll detonate the bomb if anything leaves the cargo port.’

‘You’re not actually leaving me much option. I’ll need schematics of the port and a weapon.’

‘Yes, I had considered that. I’m transmitting the plans now. You can collect your knife and pistol from me in the cargo port.’

‘You’re on the planet?!’

Winter smiled again. ‘I work very much in secret, Miss Jansen, but I’m quite a hands-on manager.’

‘All right. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’ A second window popped up to tell her that the schematics had been downloaded and processed into the navigation system. ‘One thing. I’d like you to get Ella and Monkey out of here once I’ve gone in.’

‘I’ll see to it personally.’ The link broke and Aneka pushed herself up onto one elbow.

‘Wake up, you two, we have to go.’

Monkey blinked at her from the other bed. ‘Huh? Is the port open again?’

‘No, but you two are leaving.’

‘We are?’ Ella said. ‘What about you?’

~~~

Ella had been, predictably, less than pleased, but the awe involved in meeting the mysterious Winter had been enough to make her accept that this was going to happen and that was that. Monkey had not been happy either, more because she was going in alone and there was nothing he could do, and he was not allowed to say anything about it. As Aneka crawled through the wiring duct toward the spaceport, she was not exactly pleased herself.

It was a data conduit, thankfully. There were no thick power cables, but there were bundles of fibre-optic cables, and they had not always been put in the best of places, or even properly fixed down. She was pushing a bag with her equipment ahead of her and she had left her boots behind with Ella because they were just too clumsy for this kind of activity. She was quite glad she had not inherited her mother’s classic English pear-shaped body, but on the other hand she was beginning to wish the Xinti had not ‘perked’ her breasts up quite so much. She had to be almost a cup size bigger and the added firmness was not helping.

On top of that, she was in pitch darkness. Her glorious enhanced vision was no use down here where there was no light at all aside from the heat her own body gave off, and she was not using a torch because there were holes in the plate at the other end and there was the small possibility that a light might be seen. At least she was crawling to the end of the tunnel so there was no chance of missing her exit.

When her bag finally bumped into something too solid to be another cable blockage, her clock told her she had spent twenty minutes crawling five hundred metres. Shuffling onto her back, she got her hands under the metal plate an inch or two above her nose and pushed. Stress measurement indicators in-vision soared upward, turning yellow as she managed to shift the steel. Fifty kilos of metal levered upward, the task becoming easier as the angle on her arms changed and she could use her back. Finally, holding the cover up on its edge, she pulled her bag out, found the lifting holes by touch, and lowered the plate back into place.

It was still pitch black, but she had the schematic of the port and knew the stairs up were on her left orienting against the duct. Internal gyroscopes and magnetometers made sure she knew exactly where that orientation was and how she had moved since getting out of the duct. The door at the top of the stairs was locked, but she had the code to unlock it and it slid back without complaint. After almost half an hour of total darkness, the dim light from the sparse emergency lights in the service corridor seemed incredibly bright.

Aneka used the opportunity of the unguarded corridor to open up her bag and get her equipment out. It was a classic piece of poor security design: assuming that an ingress point was ‘impossible’ and so did not need guarding. There were no security sensors down here because ‘no one’ could get to it without going through the port which did have cameras. The fact that you needed a respirator to breathe in the unventilated space just added to that sense of false security.

With her belt strapped on and her pistol in its holster, a clever black full-face mask on which was opaque from the outside and transparent from within, and her knife strapped to her left thigh, Aneka took her last piece of equipment and walked down to the one security feature the tunnel did have. Staff were required to check in on entering or leaving, and that meant that there was a small terminal at each end attached to the port’s security system. The terrorists had cut the connections between the port’s systems and the central administration system in the town, but that was not going to stop her connecting to it through the terminal down here. She plugged the small gadget into a data port, turned it on, and waited. A second later a green light appeared and she turned it off and stowed it in a pouch on her belt. The security system would now ignore her; all she had to worry about were the actual terrorists.

That was something of a problem. Intelligence suggested there were at least five of them, and probably no more than ten. That was a lot of leeway, but they had eighty-three hostages to look after, assuming they had not killed anyone yet, which meant keeping the majority of their force in one location. Winter’s best guess was that that would be the central passenger lounge; it had cover and a large enough open space that they could hold everyone there. It was also likely that the bomb was there. However, they probably had at least one person in the security suite.

Her hand closed around the grip of her pistol and she checked the setting: lethal, single-shot. She had asked Winter whether she wanted the terrorists alive and the answer had been, ‘My dear, I don’t want them at all.’ At least the gloves were off. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped out into the port proper.

She had expected no lookouts down here, but it was gratifying to discover she was correct. Picking up the pace, she padded on bare feet down the service corridor toward the emergency staircase at one end. The passenger lounge was closer to where she had come up than the security suite, but she had about an hour to neutralise the terrorists and she needed accurate information. The security suite could give her that.

Four floors up she eased open the door and slid her pistol out to scan up and down the corridor. This floor contained the security suite and some break rooms for the security and customs staff. The building was vaguely pyramid shaped with the flight control room above this floor, staff and crew facilities below, and passenger facilities below that. Most of the major services were under the cavern floor, where Aneka had come in. And they had not posted guards, bunch of amateurs. She slipped out into the corridor and edged down to the security room door, setting her pistol to stun as she did so. She had no obligation to keep any of the terrorists alive, but lethal mode was damn noisy.

The code lock on the door released and the door slid open with what Aneka felt was far too much noise, but the man on the security console was still intently watching the screens in front of him, apparently oblivious. She moved forward, coming up behind him, and clamped one hand on his jaw, effectively silencing him, the other on the back of his neck. He gave a startled, muffled squeak, and grabbed at her arm. There was a momentary struggle, and then she wrenched his head sharply to the right, hearing the wet crunch as she dislocated his spine at the neck. He went very limp, very fast. Laying his body down under the counter, she moved to the security displays.

There had been ten of them, now there were nine, but they had one man in the control tower, and three watching the entrance hall from Cavern One. That left five of them in the central lounge with the hostages. One of them, the spokesman for the group if not its leader, was standing beside an open, metal suitcase. That, presumably, was the bomb, but the view from the camera was not good enough to see whether it was on a timer. They seemed to be armed with various weapons. There were a couple of what looked like laser rifles, but the leader only had a pistol, and the man she had killed was carrying a projectile weapon, a caseless automatic pistol.

Well, the front gate guards could wait, but the man in the control tower had to go first. She went out of the security room and back to the stairs, running up a floor and slipping out unseen. She knew where he was, at the other end of the wide room where the supervisor’s radar screens were located. Then she switched her pistol back to lethal and lined up the shot; two full floors between her and the other men should be enough to mask the sound. Aiming for his head, she squeezed the trigger. She winced: someone was going to have a nasty cleaning job.

Next was the passenger lounge and there was no good way to take this one. The leader had to go first, that was for certain, and anyone else who went near the bomb. She had surprise on her side, and the probability that these were not trained soldiers. When the shooting started, some of them would hesitate, but she had seconds to deal with them, and the noise might attract the three guards at the front. Well, there was no helping it. She would have to deal with whatever happened.

Ingress points were a bit meagre, unfortunately. The front, widest, entry point was out since that led to the security gates and the link tunnel. There were three other pathways in or out leading to the various boarding bridges and landing platforms. Aneka came down from the staff floor on the right-hand side of the passenger hall. There was a man standing at the entrance to the room, what looked like a hunting rifle in his arms, but his eyes were on the prisoners. Aneka pulled her dagger from its sheath, and moved silently across the floor toward the gunman.

As soon as she could see the leader, she raised her pistol and fired, squeezing off three rounds in rapid succession and targeting centre of mass. From the way the first shot ripped open his chest, he was probably dead on the first hit. The second pulse hit his left hand as it whipped around with the twist of his body, vaporising it, and the third blasted his left leg off at the thigh. Aneka’s eyes widened at the sight of what her pistol did to a human body: the thing was horrific! The rest of the room froze in shock.

Aneka ignored the man directly in front of her, swinging wide and aiming for the one across the hall from the leader. Three more pulses of energy burst out, three more hits, another corpse hitting the floor, this time with a torso which looked like someone had scooped it out with a bulldozer and no right arm.

Now the screaming started and the gunmen started to gather their wits. Aneka lined up a third one, standing in the middle of the room. She needed to be more careful with this one; his head appeared in her targeting window as she pulled the trigger. That head disintegrated into a cloud of blood and bone fragments and people screamed as the backwash from the explosion hit them. Or perhaps it was the shower of blood. They were not badly hurt, but they were starting to panic.

Aneka yelled, ‘Stay down!’ The shout seemed to wake up the man she was still more or less standing behind, and he turned, bringing his rifle around. She moved, stepping in and bringing her knife up toward his neck. His eyes widened and he twitched sideways, the fine edge of the blade slicing off a lock of his long, unkempt, black hair. At this range, the rifle was too unwieldy to use as a gun, so he swung the barrel at her instead. It was clumsy and stupid, and his swing bumped into her arm with no force. Then there was a sound a bit like a lightning strike, and the rifleman screamed as his right leg was cut out from under him.

Across the hall, the fifth terrorist was holding his laser pistol in a good shooting stance, but his jaw was hanging open. Aneka decided to put him out of his misery: her gun spoke and his smoking remains fell to the dirt-coloured carpet.

There was a bang from Aneka’s right and fragments of plaster and concrete bounced off her hood. The fallen man was not giving up, but he was clearly in shock and his shot had gone wild. Well, if he was not giving up… Her knife slammed down, point first, lancing through the roof of his mouth as though there was no bone in his body. He twitched once as she pulled the blade free, and then stopped moving entirely.

She started moving almost immediately. ‘Stay where you are!’ she yelled as she ran for the entrance tunnel. ‘Do not move. You’ll be rescued soon.’ Skirting the circular area containing the passenger seating, she started down the corridor.

Two of the three were running back toward the lounge. Aneka raised her gun, range thirty metres, well within effective range. She fired, the bolts tracking across her target’s body from right to left. His hand, chest, and arm vanished in explosions of gore, and the detonations smacked into his compatriot, bouncing him off the corridor wall. He stumbled, fell, and did not get up again. She was considering making sure he was out of the game when a bullet flew past her, followed by the sound of the shot.

She dropped to one knee, raising her pistol and using it to zoom in on the man at the end of the corridor past the security gates. He was holding a hunting rifle, large calibre, something close to an old NATO round, and he was lining up for another shot having missed with the first. She fired back, one round, straight through the chest just below his rifle. Through her sighting system she saw his ribcage blown back and outward, the rifle flying up and away from him, his eyes glazing over just before he fell backward onto the concrete floor.

‘It’s done,’ she said inside her head, breaking radio silence.

‘Any survivors?’ Winter’s voice replied after a second.

‘One of them’s still breathing. Some of the hostages may need a bit of medical assistance. This gun’s about as subtle as an anti-tank rocket.’

‘The local police are pushing through the barricades now. I don’t want you found there. Is that man going to wake up before the police get to him?’

Aneka turned the terrorist over and prised one of his eyes open. ‘I doubt it.’

‘All right. Get to gate twenty. There’ll be a shuttle there in five minutes… three minutes. Move.’

Aneka moved.

Harriamon Naval Station, 9.11.523 FSC.

Ape Gibbons was waiting outside the cabin Aneka and Ella had been sharing when Aneka walked out with the remains of their baggage. He was glowering, which either meant he was thinking something bad, or he had been told about her part in ending the hostage incident and did not like the fact that she had helped.

‘So you went down to the planet with my son and the next thing that happens is terrorists taking over the spaceport.’ Apparently it was the former.

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Kind of sucks. I’m not sure I like your inference though. I was with Ella and David the whole day, and night.’ She could see from his face that he did not like that either.

‘You didn’t come back to the station with them.’

‘No. No I didn’t.’

‘Would you care to explain that?’

Aneka started walking, stepping around the big man. ‘No, I wouldn’t. If you want to know what I was doing, you’ll have to make a request through your command chain to the Federal Security Agency.’ Making him angry was probably not the best course of action, but Winter had been very clear on the matter: Aneka’s participation in the events on Harriamon was need-to-know only.

He did not try to stop her, however. ‘I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Jansen.’

‘That’s not your job, Captain,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘I’ve got people queuing up to look at me with every kind of sensor there is. Some friendly advice, don’t get in the way too much or someone will get pissed off.’

He said nothing more as she walked away, but she doubted this was the last she was going to see of him.

Part Four: Terra Nova

FScV Garnet Hyde, 29.11.523 FSC.

Watching the stars on a video screen was not the same as doing it live, but it was the only way to do it at warp speed, and the screen in the science lab was huge. Aneka sat watching the stars because she needed a break from studying and you did not get the chance to watch stars from space too often.

Well, she thought, perhaps she would if she continued working for the University. She could not go into cold sleep, which meant she would be awake for journeys between the stars. It gave her plenty of time to study more, familiarise herself with equipment, and learn more about the society she was about to jump into, but it meant someone had to be awake with her. There had to be a way around that. Currently, both Gillian and Ella were happy to do it so they could begin the detailed analysis work on their finds. Next trip, however, there would be nothing to analyse until they got there. So, one of her projects on the one-hundred-and-ninety-two-day trip to New Earth was to come up with a way to put herself into suspended animation.

The thought occurred that she was thinking of Doctor Gilroy as Gillian now. There had just been the three of them awake on the ship for the last nineteen days and Gillian had been spending part of each day interviewing Aneka about Old Earth. It was something of a two-way exchange: Aneka would explain some aspect of the society she had come from and that would generally result in a discussion of how it differed from Federation society. The more they talked, the more Aneka felt she knew the woman.

It might also have been Ella’s fault. Well, fault was the wrong world, but she had suggested cutting down on the resource usage on the ship by having everyone move into Gillian’s room. She had a double bed and while Aneka was a fairly large woman, Ella nor Gillian were not. They all fitted, and they could shut down air circulation in one of the cabins. They had managed to be restrained for three nights. It was not like they were shagging like bunnies every night, but it was hard to call a woman by her surname after you had had her face between your legs. Damn she was good too! Aneka squirmed a little in her seat.

Gillian chose that moment to walk into the dark lab. ‘Lights,’ she said and then jumped when she saw Aneka sitting in front of the monitor. ‘Sorry, I didn’t know you were in here.’

Aneka gave her a smile. ‘I was just thinking about you, and watching the stars.’

‘No bad thoughts I hope, though thinking of me while watching stars sounds rather romantic.’

Aneka laughed. ‘The two things weren’t related. My mind was just wandering. I realised I’ve started thinking of you as Gillian rather than Doctor or Gilroy, or some combination.’

Gillian smiled, wandering over to one of the terminals and sliding herself onto the stool in front of it. ‘I’d imagine it’s the sex. It’s hard not to use someone’s given name when you’ve seen them in orgasm.’

‘I was thinking something similar.’ Aneka lifted from her seat and wandered over to stand behind Gillian’s right shoulder. ‘You two are so good at it. I mean, I muddle through and I hope I’m giving back what I get, but…’

‘I’ve been quite satisfied, I assure you. It’s practice, partially. Ella practises whenever she can and I’ve been doing it for… ninety years. You’re young, you’ll learn. Though we do have a slight advantage over you.’

‘Sorry?’

‘There’s been a little genetic tinkering since your time. There was a phase before the Long Dark when people were tweaking the genome a fair amount. These days there are manipulations done to weed out defects and socially unacceptable mental characteristics, but back then they were into boosting IQ, adapting Humans for space, things like that. Most of those have carried through into the Jenlay, and one of them was some tweaking of the genitals.’

Aneka grimaced. ‘You’re kidding.’

‘Oh no. You won’t find many small men. They wanted thicker and longer. So the women had to be able to take longer penises without discomfort, and the women wanted bigger, better, easier orgasms. You must have noticed that there’s a muscle reaction when we get excited, a milking action? That was put in when the men started being able to fuck for hours without coming. As best we can tell, it was a sort of sensual arms race, and we’re the result.’ She chuckled. ‘A friend of mine in college had inherited a rare gene which made her nipples intensely sensitive. She couldn’t wear a bra and she’d come if you sucked on one for a few seconds.’

‘Ouch, that had to be a pain.’

Gillian shrugged, her fingers working over the keys. ‘She was a big hit with the boys. Of course, you have some physical advantages which you could learn to use to make up for our genetic advantages. Your strength, for example. Your senses…’

Aneka’s eyes followed the glyphs moving across the screen. ‘What are you working on? Those are Xinti characters, aren’t they? But they don’t make any sense.’

‘Quite. This is from the databank the Xinti robots gave you. It seems to be encrypted, and the computer has had no luck with decrypting it yet.’

‘Do you want Al to take a crack at it? He’s stupidly fast and he is actually a Xinti computer.’

She gave a little shrug. ‘I don’t see why not. As far as we know, these are historical records related to the War. There’s no harm in anyone looking and, as it stands, no one can. I’ve uploaded several files to the ship’s server, pull one down and see what you can do.’

Al was already busy downloading one of the smaller files having anticipated her request. ‘Working on it.’ She frowned. ‘What’s the definition of a volitional AI?’

‘They… have volition? I’m not a cyberneticist. If you want the legal definition, it should be in the Law Codes. There’s a copy in the ship’s library if you want something to help you sleep.’

Aneka put a hand on Gillian’s shoulder. ‘If I need help sleeping, I have more entertaining options.’ In-vision, Al was busy posting updates in his search for the cypher. The names were all in Xinti, but he was flicking through options at remarkable speed.

Gillian chuckled softly. ‘How am I supposed to get any work done with all this willing, nubile flesh around?’

‘Technically, I’m not flesh. Normal flesh anyway. I’ll accept the nubile part, though Ella’s a lot more flexible. Anyway, if I wasn’t here you’d be asleep, so it’s all a bonus.’

‘A valid point. I think you’re acclimatising to your new culture very well.’ She sighed and tapped the console’s attention button. ‘Gilroy to Narrows. What are you doing, Ella?’

Ella’s voice, sounding bored, came from the speaker a second later. ‘Playing robot. I figured I’d go through the finds catalogue, check everything against the labels and see if there was anything we missed.’

‘I see. Finish up whatever you’re currently processing and report to my cabin.’

‘Yes, Doctor.’ Ella sounded a little surprised at Gillian’s tone.

Gillian tapped the intercom off. ‘Do you think that sounded stern enough?’ She slid off the stool, locking the terminal as she went. ‘Come on, I haven’t played the stern schoolmistress in years. You are a bad influence on me, I’m normally far better at focussing on my work.’ She smiled and started toward the lab door. ‘Of course, I haven’t had a new lover in a decade and novelty is quite the aphrodisiac. Now, when we get there and she comes in, you’ll hold her and I’ll do the spanking…’

~~~

‘I can’t believe you did that,’ Ella mumbled through the pillow.

‘I can’t believe you came three times just from being spanked,’ Aneka replied. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, propped up on one arm. Gillian was taking a shower.

Ella rolled onto her back, her hair falling over her face. ‘I didn’t know the Doc knew that trick. It’s effectively a sympathetic resonance thing. One of the, um, risks of the way our clitoral organs were restructured.’

‘You’re demystifying sexual magic.’ A message appeared in Aneka’s vision field. ‘Al’s cracked the code on your file, Doc.’ She turned to the large display screen on one of the walls as her AI sent the file to it.

Ella pushed her hair out of her face and focussed on the screen. ‘It looks like this is… the original troop deployment order and mission profile for the robots on Alpha Mensae Four.’

‘Not exactly exciting,’ Aneka commented, ‘but he picked one of the smallest files as a test. According to him, it’s using the Bol Nar Four-Two-Six algorithm, a “standard, low-grade, military file encryption system using one-thousand-and-twenty-four-bit encryption keys.” He’s uploaded the decryption software. The ship’s computer should be able to decode the other files easily enough.’

Gillian emerged from the bathroom cubicle towelling her hair. ‘Computer, begin decrypting files in folder “Xinti archive” using the uploaded decryption software.’ Animated icons began moving around in a window on the big screen as the computer began its work. ‘Thank Al for us, Aneka. I dare say we could have cracked that back at the University, but we don’t have that kind of raw power available on the ship.’

Aneka chuckled as an in-vision message appeared to her. ‘He says, “My pleasure.”’

‘You were asking about the definition of volitional AIs earlier. You suspect he is one.’

Aneka’s face straightened. ‘The way he reacts… He’s got initiative. He predicts my needs, does things for me without me asking. He’s never done anything I wasn’t going to ask for anyway, but he has volunteered information. I don’t want to discover I have an illegal computer buried in my chest.’

‘If he already exists, then he’s not illegal,’ Ella supplied. ‘It’s creating volitional AIs that’s against the law. And he’s been in there for over a thousand years.’

‘True… I think I’ll still look into it. Hey, if the ship’s computer can understand spoken instructions, why do you guys use the keyboard and mouse pad so much?’

‘The “mouse pad,”’ Gillian repeated, smiling. ‘That’s a term I’ve not heard for it.’

‘We used to use a thing called a “mouse” to direct the pointer on the screen. It had a small body with buttons on and a wire which was kind of like a tail so… mouse. This is a touch-sensitive pad to do the same job…’

Ella giggled. ‘I like that.’

‘Voice command is always available,’ Gillian said, ‘but keyboard commands are usually more precise and…’ She reached out to the screen, placing her finger and thumb against one of the files which had been decrypted already. She spread her fingers and the file animated out to show the contents. ‘…gestures can be more efficient for some operations. It’s a matter of selecting the interface option which suits your needs.’

‘I’ll get used to all of this eventually.’ She was reading the first part of the file Gillian had opened as she spoke; her eyebrows went up. ‘That looks like something you might find more interesting.’

Gillian turned and scanned the first few lines. A small squeak came from her throat and Aneka bounced up from the bed, just making it in time to catch the archaeologist as her knees gave out.

‘Doc?’ Ella said, concerned. Her eyes flicked up to the screen; Gillian was just making incoherent squeaking noises. ‘D-does that really say “Xinti History, Intrastellar Expansion Period?”’

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka replied. ‘Could you get some smelling salts or something? Gillian’s fainted.’

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Aneka stood beside Drake’s sleep pod, watching the system cycle through the wake-up procedure. It took around thirty minutes to revive the occupant and, where possible, it was preferred that someone was standing by when the lid finally opened. When the entire crew were asleep, it was common practice for the flight crew to be woken first so that they could assist the others, but Drake was going to have the luxury of someone standing by this time. In this case, Drake was waking up for one of the mid-journey flight checks which were mandatory on any trip longer than fifty days. Routine, probably unnecessary, but still mandatory.

Everything was going according to the book. All the indicators were green, the bio-sign screen showed a steady rise in heart rate and breathing, and a strong EEG. When the lid of the pod finally opened up, Drake let out a groan and sat up, swallowing as though he had been on a drinking binge the night before. Aneka held out a bottle of rehydration fluid and let him drink it down without comment. Sleeping through the trip would be easier, but clearly less pleasant.

‘You’re naked,’ he commented, swinging his legs off the bed.

‘Yeah,’ Aneka drawled. ‘We’ve taken to playing cards every ten days or so. Something called “Fives?” No money involved, but the loser has to pay a forfeit decided by the winner. I lost and Ella decided that, since I don’t need a shipsuit, I should do without clothes.’

Drake looked at her, his eyes narrowing. ‘You lost at Fives to Ella.’

Aneka smirked. Fives was something like poker, a game based as much on bluffing and psychology as it was on the luck of the cards. Ella was lousy at it. ‘She lost three games in a row and we decided to let her win one. She’s convinced she should be good at it.’

Drake shook his head, picked up another bottle, and got to his feet. ‘Let’s get the work out of the way, then I can have something to eat and go back to sleep.’

‘So keen to be back in the freezer,’ Aneka laughed.

He returned the laugh, heading for the door. ‘No. It’s a question of resource management. The fewer people awake at once the better. Of course, you count as a fraction of a crewmember, but Gillian and Ella are a moderate drain on the recycling systems. We took on extra supplies at Harriamon to be sure we were okay for this run. How are they doing, by the way?’

They were walking up the spinal corridor of the main deck, Aneka going along because he seemed happy to talk to her. ‘According to Gillian, “We have entered a whole new era of historical knowledge.” Al cracked the encryption on the files in that Xinti data store and the two of them have been in archival bliss ever since.’

‘Huh, worth staying up for then.’

‘Oh yes. I’ve been going through more cultural familiarisation exercises, making sure I understand some of the equipment, stuff like that. Gillian’s been interviewing me about Earth, though that’s dropped off since she got her treasure trove to go through.’

He chuckled, stopping at the door to the cockpit. ‘Girls with toys. Drake, Captain, ready for routine flight check.’ There was a chime from the control panel, and the door slid open. The air smelled slightly stale, but Aneka could hear the air conditioning working at full power to freshen the room up. ‘Come in if you like,’ Drake added as he walked through the doorway. ‘This won’t take long and we can go down to the mess after.’ Aneka gave a shrug and followed him, hearing the locking latches fall into place as the door closed behind her.

The control panel flickered into life as Drake settled into his chair. Standard, but highly configurable, video displays were complemented by pseudo-holographic projections which gave additional information to the pilot and were visible wherever he looked. Aneka settled into the co-pilot’s seat beside him, pulling one knee up and wrapping her arms around it. She watched as Drake pulled his seat forward and his fingers started to dance over controls. On his left, apparently hanging in the air, but actually on a transparent screen, a diagnostic display expanded into existence, amber lights turning green as the ship pronounced various systems to be working within parameters.

‘You ever get any of those lights turning red?’

He glanced at her. ‘Occasionally. I’ve never had a major system cause problems outside of a simulation, but I’ve seen the odd problem. The worst thing the Hyde’s ever done to us was have the long-range communications system go.’ His fingers moved for a few seconds. ‘I tell a lie. The backup atmosphere processor failed its check-up once. Not bad of itself, but we were flying a hundred parsecs with no backup.’

Aneka wrinkled her nose. ‘Never good.’

‘No, but from what I hear you’re pretty good without backup.’

No one had really mentioned the Harriamon spaceport incident. They all knew about the hostage situation and that Aneka had come back to the naval station after Ella and Monkey, and they had all seen the news reports stating that an ‘unknown Federal agent’ was responsible for taking out the terrorists. No one had asked, but it was not hard for them to put the pieces together knowing what she could do.

‘I’m not allowed to discuss that.’

‘I know. Ten men in an entrenched position with no possible point of ingress, all the terrorists disabled or killed and four out of eighty hostages lightly hurt in the rescue. Whoever did that, she was fucking amazing.’ Aneka gave him a slight smile over her forearm. ‘Okay,’ he said as the last light changed colour, ‘all green and the nav system says we’re on course. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in a quick fuck?’ Aneka’s eyes widened as he pushed his chair back and swivelled it around to face her; the bulge in his shipsuit had taken on a more recognisable shape. He shrugged. ‘It was worth asking…’

‘I didn’t say no,’ Aneka said quickly, ‘I just wasn’t expecting it. I haven’t actually had a man since I woke up.’

‘You didn’t say yes either.’

‘How do you want me?’

‘Shannon likes to bend over with her elbows on the flight chair.’ Aneka give him a quirky, questioning look as she got off the seat and turned around to face it. ‘She has a thing for inappropriate sex.’ She saw him get a tube of some description from under the flight console. ‘She decided to go down on me on final approach into New Earth Spaceport last year.’ She spread her legs wider as his fingers smoothed a slick, cool fluid into her labia and then began to massage it into her; they were well prepared for sex in the cockpit. ‘I came as the landing gear hit the Plascrete.’

Aneka let out a little whimper as his fingers stroked her clitoris and it stiffened under the effect of the cool lubricant. She heard his suit unsealing, his hands gripped her hips, and then she felt him enter her. Her eyes widened: man he was big! She felt herself stretching smoothly around his shaft, glad of the extra lubrication, until he was all the way in. She let out a long groan.

‘Good?’ he asked. She laughed a response. ‘Since I’m your first, I wouldn’t want to hurt you.’

‘I’m a fucking armoured android. Fuck me.’

He took her at her word, pulling out and slamming back in again, his hips smacking into her butt. Her grunts picked up the rhythm of his thrusts, but then he began to vary the pace, slowing and quickening, apparently at random, but the effect was to push her almost to the edge and then back over and over. She realised that the women did the same thing, but she had never met a man who could do it like this. Drake’s genetically enhanced penis seemed quite capable of teasing her like this for hours, but after about ten minutes she was mewling and begging for release. He switched back to solid pounding and she came almost instantly, her hands gripping the back of the flight chair so hard she thought she would leave marks.

When she could muster the energy to stand up and turn around, he was sitting on his chair, cleaning himself off with some wet wipes. Aneka laughed. ‘Shannon really does have this place stocked for quickies.’ He offered her the pack and she shook her head. ‘I’ll grab a quick shower before I come to the mess.’ She tilted her head to one side thoughtfully. ‘How was I? I mean, compared to a modern girl.’

Drake frowned slightly, starting to pull his shipsuit back on. ‘They’ve got the muscle thing. It’s like being milked. Very stimulating. You’re really tight, and without the extra stimulation I could really concentrate on doing what I wanted with you. And, like you said, you’ve got an armoured combat chassis there, so I could go to town without worrying.’ He gave a shrug and sealed up his suit. ‘Pros and cons on both sides.’ He stood up and gave her a grin. ‘I’m certainly not complaining about my first ever Xinti android.’

Aneka returned his grin. She was not complaining either.

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Aneka was sitting in the lab watching the stars again, but this time it was with a sense of melancholy. She had been feeling a little off for the last couple of days, and she was moderately sure it had been noticed, but she knew what it was, and that it would pass, and no one had asked so far.

The lab door opened, and closed, and no one called for the lights which meant it was Ella. Her artificial eyes functioned better in dim light than Gillian’s did, not as well as Aneka’s, but enough that she did not need to disturb the ambience of the room with more light.

‘They’re beautiful, really,’ Ella said, her voice soft. ‘I don’t really look at them anymore.’ She got a non-committal hum of response. ‘Something up? You’ve been a bit… sad since yesterday morning.’ And Ella was the kind of person who did not like her friends unhappy.

‘It’s… Ah, it’s Christmas.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Yeah, I gathered you guys didn’t know what it was. It used to be a religious festival, sort of. I mean, it wasn’t terribly religious by my time, though some people still went to church for Midnight Mass… Anyway, it was a family time. I used to try to be home with my parents and brother every year if I possibly could and… well…’

‘It’s brought the whole thing home,’ Ella said.

‘Yeah.’

‘So, what did you do at this “Christmas?”’

Aneka laughed. ‘Well, there were presents. We would buy each other gifts, wrap them in bright paper, and they would be opened on Christmas Day, which was the twenty-fifth of December. The calendar has changed, but it would be today, basically. After the presents we would have a huge meal, drink too much, watch some bad TV… It was having the whole family together that was the important thing though. In Sweden it was more to do with Christmas Eve, the day before. We would do both and make sure we were together both days.’

Ella frowned, though Aneka was not looking at her. ‘I can’t really replace your lost family. Normally we have a get-together a bit like that on First Day, the first day of the year. Of course, most of the crew will be asleep, but the Doc and I were planning to have a little celebration then.’

Aneka looked around at her and smiled. ‘We called it New Year’s Day. Everyone would stay up on New Year’s Eve and see in the New Year at midnight with drinks, and then it was a holiday on the first to get over the hangover.’

‘It’s still pretty much the same. There’s a little… I guess you’d call it a prayer, that someone is supposed to say just after midnight, and then everyone drinks. And then everyone usually drinks more. Gillian has a bottle of shinishee she picked up at Harriamon when she knew we’d be awake.’

‘Shinishee?’

‘It’s a drink, brewed from berries and distilled. It’s… probably best if you just try it and see what you think. I can’t describe it. I know it’s not the same as “Christmas” with your family, but it’s something.’

Aneka looped an arm around Ella’s waist and pulled her closer; Ella did not object and her arm settled around Aneka’s shoulders. ‘It’s not the same, no, but thanks, Ella.’

‘What for?’

‘Trying to make me feel better. You’re right, I think this is what made it sink in. I had to mourn them sooner or later and this is the time. I’ll be over it in a day or two and we can celebrate First Day, and I can start a new year and my new life. There’s a whole new world out there to start living in.’

Ella said nothing, but her arm tightened around Aneka as she watched the stars sliding by on the screen.

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‘Tony Grigson,’ Aneka said, giggling. ‘I was thirteen, he was fourteen. He wanted to see under my skirt, but all he got was a kiss.’ They were sitting around playing a drunken game of something like Truth or Dare, except that Aneka was not drunk and could not get drunk, and they had had to think of a different punishment for not accepting a question. A collection of sex toys had been made ready for applying this punishment, though Aneka was not convinced that ‘punishment’ was the right word.

‘Tongue?’ Ella asked. Technically, supplementary questions were not allowed, but Aneka figured that one was acceptable.

‘I was thirteen! He got a peck on the lips and both of us thought we had done the most disgusting thing you could do.’ She shrugged. ‘About nine months later he had his hands down my knickers, but that was about as far as he got.’

Ella giggled and accepted that she had got her answer by saying, ‘Computer, next.’ The screen came up with two names, Aneka above Ella, produced from a simple pseudo-random number generator. Ella pouted, but turned to Aneka to get her question.

‘Okay,’ Aneka said, already prepared for this one. ‘The first person you had sex with?’

Ella giggled and took a sip of her drink. ‘Difficult one,’ she said.

‘Are you saying you forfeit?’ Gillian asked.

‘No,’ Ella replied, ‘it’s just a little complicated. The first person I had sex with on purpose was Hedda Tulka, my roommate for my first year at university. Neither of us had tried girls before… Well, I hadn’t done much with boys either. We didn’t exactly settle into anything regular, but we would end up in the same bed once a month or so. Sometimes with one or more boyfriends.’

‘The first you had “on purpose?”’

‘Uh-huh. When I was fifteen I went to a friend’s birthday party back on Harriamon. I was still blind back then, yes? We got into this stupid hide-and-seek game where the boys all went to hide and the girls had to look for them. If you found a boy, you had to hide with him. The boys would generally try to find a spot that would mean you were pressed together…’

‘A little like Seven Minutes in Heaven,’ Aneka said, ‘just a mass version.’

‘I guess,’ Ella said, probably not actually understanding the game reference. ‘The idea was that the house computer would ring all our comms units at a set time, and we had to stay wherever we’d got to until then. I found my boy after ten minutes, in a wardrobe in one of the bedrooms. I figured there would be a bit of groping and I let him do that because I wasn’t going to let him kiss me. Well, no one else found us and after ten minutes I’d stopped trying to stop him. The comms went about thirty minutes later and he pulled out and left. I never even knew who he was.’

Both Aneka and Gillian were looking at her with slightly horrified expressions, and she shrank a little. ‘It wasn’t what you’re thinking. He didn’t… I mean I know I said I didn’t want him to… I was a blind girl with half a face. All my friends had boyfriends and most of them were having sex. It wasn’t the way I wanted my first time to be, but there I was and he was willing, and it felt good. For half an hour I felt like an ordinary teenage girl…’

Thankfully, the computer chimed at them, distracting them from the story. A large clock had appeared on the screen: it was a minute to midnight. Gillian grabbed three fresh glasses which were waiting just for the purpose, and began pouring a dense, dark purple fluid into them. Aneka watched it pour, wondering at Ella. It was hard to believe that the girl she knew now had once been so insecure as to allow herself to be effectively raped, and was still rationalising it as a good thing. She picked up her glass and turned her eyes to the clock.

‘You’ll say the Renewal?’ Ella asked.

‘Unless you want to,’ Gillian replied.

‘It should be the eldest.’

‘You’re right. Computer, transmit the text of the Renewal to Aneka.’ She grinned as Aneka turned a wide-eyed look on her. ‘You do have several centuries on both of us. Just as it turns midnight, we take a drink, and then you just read the words. It should be the first thing anyone says though. Then we drink again.’

Al popped up the text for her, along with a countdown timer. Aneka scanned over the words quickly; it was not a long speech. ‘Okay,’ she said.

The clock ticked over to midnight, and they raised their glasses, clinking them together and taking a drink. Shinishee had a sharp, slightly fruity taste. It burned all the way down Aneka’s throat like a good whiskey. She smiled, and then looked down before she started reading. ‘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.’

She looked up to check that she had said it right. Ella was grinning brightly, but Gillian actually had a tear in her eye. They both raised their glasses and there was another click of crystal on crystal before they drank again.

‘Somehow,’ Gillian said, wiping the water from her eye, ‘that had so much more meaning spoken by a girl born before the Long Dark even happened.’

‘That little speech has been around a long time, I take it?’ Aneka asked.

‘It was made at the meeting which inaugurated the Lorenti Federation on Lorenti Four as the clock ticked over at the agreed time for the first second of the Federation,’ Gillian told her. ‘We don’t really have very many traditions, but this is the one we do have which pretty much everyone subscribes to.’

Ella nodded. ‘Even on a backwater world like Harriamon, we would recite the Renewal on First Day. It’s usually the oldest person who says it, but it’s the youngest if it’s their first time being allowed to stay up for it. So, actually, that’s two reasons for getting you to do it.’

Aneka emptied her glass. ‘This stuff is good. I hope it’s not just for First Day.’

Gillian chuckled. ‘No, it’s not. However, it’s about fifty-eight per cent alcohol so any minute now Ella is going to turn into a giggly nymphomaniac. She has no head for drink.’ Ella giggled and Gillian smirked.

Aneka gave a little shrug. ‘How are we going to tell the difference?’

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Aneka watched Gillian as she sank back another glass of shinishee and frowned. It was her third and she looked distinctly worried, which made Aneka worried. When Gillian poured a fourth glass, Aneka decided to intervene.

‘Hey, Doc, what’s got you trying to destroy your liver?’

Gillian jumped and almost committed alcohol crime by spilling some of the shinishee. ‘Oh, Aneka. I didn’t hear you come in.’ The lab door was hardly silent. ‘I’ve been reading through the Xinti database.’

Aneka glanced at the screen. Sure enough she found herself looking at Xinti, something about attacks on Xinti planets, probably during the War. ‘I see that, but what’s with the heavy drinking?’

Not answering, Gillian got to her feet and tapped a few keys. The screen locked and she started for the door carrying her bottle and glass. ‘We’ll go through to my room. I want to discuss this with Ella as well.’

She would say nothing else until they were all sitting around her room, and she had downed another glass of the harsh liquor, apparently to steady her nerves. When she did speak, it did not seem to be relevant. ‘Ella, why don’t you tell Aneka how the Xinti War started?’

Ella frowned, but collected her thoughts and began. ‘A lot of this is a little vague. We have relatively few solid historic documents from that period. So much was lost in the War and the period afterward. Around eleven centuries ago, Jenlay, well Humans really, had started spreading out into the galaxy. We had met up with the Herosians and the Torem, and started trading with them. There were colonies on a few worlds, mostly for mining, some for food production. Then the Herosians came to their trading partners with news of another race, the Xinti. They showed evidence that the Xinti had conducted experiments on members of the other races, including Humans…’

‘Yeah,’ Aneka said, ‘I kind of have proof of that myself.’

Ella gave her a grin that was more like a grimace. ‘They also said that the Xinti had begun attacking Herosian colony worlds, frequently leaving no survivors. The attacks were unprovoked and it seemed like the Xinti had used their experimental evidence to find weaknesses in potential targets. That meant everyone was at risk. There was a huge effort to build warships and the War began in earnest soon after that.’

‘And for all the losses we suffered,’ Gillian said, ‘we have always thought that it was a just war. We were fighting against an enemy who was callous, methodical, and bent on the subjugation or destruction of all the other races. The Herosians lost their home world, we lost Old Earth, but we survived and the Jenlay are now the dominant race in the galaxy.’

Aneka frowned: she felt like she could see where this was going. ‘But now you’re reading this from the Xinti point of view.’

The archaeologist nodded. ‘And it paints a different picture. There are detailed reports of an assault on a Xinti colony. They had lost three worlds before then with no evidence of the perpetrators, but this time they knew who had done it and retaliated.’ She paused to take another drink. ‘According to these records, the Herosians started the War by attacking the Xinti. They then persuaded the other races that the Xinti were the aggressors and got us all to fight their war for them.’

‘Well,’ Ella said into the silence which followed, ‘we have to take into account that this is written by the Xinti and so just as subjective as the Herosian reports of the same period… But I can believe it.’

‘That’s what bothers me,’ Gillian agreed. She looked at Aneka, feeling some explanation was required. ‘Herosians are… well, you’ve likely seen pictures of them in the basic familiarisation material. They look vaguely like reptiles. Tough, scaly skin, clawed hands, intolerant of low temperatures, though they are warm-blooded. They have a rather large gender imbalance, around three males are born for each female, and the result is that the males are constantly striving to improve their status and wealth to improve their chances of attracting a mate. I suppose you could say the same about Jenlay, but with Herosians it’s rather more pronounced.’

‘You don’t meet many females,’ Ella added, ‘but they’re not much better than the males. Spoiled would be the best description. They have an almost unbelievable sense of entitlement because they’re given anything they want to keep them with their husband.’

‘And these are the things which are going to hate me because my body was built by the Xinti?’ Aneka asked.

‘The same,’ Gillian said, nodding, ‘though this sheds a new light on that hatred. If they are the ones who started the War, why such vehement hatred? Whatever, this is going to cause enormous political issues. The Herosians would not wish this information known, I suspect.’

‘So what do we do?’ Ella asked.

‘Learn everything we can from these records before we get home. I’d like to store some reports and some of the files in Al’s memory if I may, Aneka? The Administration may decide to take the data into protective custody, but they don’t have to know we’ve got some of it hidden away.’

‘Of course,’ Aneka replied and then grinned. ‘Al says it’s his duty to ensure the survival of what little Xinti culture there is.’

‘It’s our duty,’ Gillian replied soberly. ‘Even if the Xinti were really the monsters current history has made them out to be, we owe it to history to discover all we can about them.’

A message appeared in Aneka’s vision field. I like her. She smiled: she did too. Then the thought hit her that her inbuilt computer had preferences in the people she associated with. Was that a good thing?

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The legal code was certainly boring and, despite Aneka’s vague hope that lawyers might have died out in the last millennium, it appeared to be written in the kind of legalese she was used to hating in her time. She was glad she had chosen to lie down to read through it, the text scrolling past in-vision.

As far as she could tell, even if Al was a volitional AI by the terms of the law, and it was looking more and more like it, she could not be harmed for having him as part of her body, and he could not be removed simply for existing. He could be destroyed if he did something for which the death penalty applied, but she thought he was unlikely to commit treason or murder more than five people.

Unless hiding the entire Xinti archive, every last file, was going to count as treason at some point in the future. They had vastly underestimated his storage capacity, and he had quietly filed away everything the ship’s computer had decrypted on being given the directive to do so. She had asked him what his storage capacity was, but ten zettabytes meant absolutely nothing to her.

‘Can you speak?’ she asked in the silence of her mind.

‘Yes.’ The voice was soft, but masculine. It whispered in her ears, it seemed, though she was fairly sure that the computer was speaking directly into her brain.

‘Then why haven’t you spoken before?’

‘If your conditioning had been completed, I would have. The Xinti would have fully trained you in the use of your body. As it was, you were shaken enough by the discovery of your situation. A voice in your head seemed… unwise.’

She let that sink in for a second. ‘So you just let me think you were nothing but a smart computer?’

‘I knew you would figure it out eventually. You’re smarter than I am. I let you come to your own conclusions and tried to give you the information you needed when you needed it.’

‘Okay. So there’s more to this body than I’ve already figured out?’

‘You have grasped the fundamentals. There are nuances I can teach you, and a few things you haven’t discovered. I also have files on your weapons and systems you may find instructive.’

Aneka nodded. ‘We’ll start tomorrow.’

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The Garnet Hyde was a hive of activity once again after six months of near silence. Aneka moved through the people rushing about in preparation with a serene calm she did not entirely feel, performing whatever task she was given by Gillian or Bashford as they asked for it. They were preparing for orbital insertion, and everything had to be ready, but she had never been through this kind of operation, and she was as much an observer as she was a participant.

In-vision she watched the ship’s flight plan as it neared warp exit. An indicator on the display told her that that would happen in five minutes and forty seconds. Another display indicated the current locations of each of the crew within the ship. Al had spent the last five months walking her through what her systems could provide for her, giving her opportunities to work with all the information she could have at her fingertips in controlled situations, and she was now quite used to spreading her attention across multiple displays and the real world.

It had been something of a revelation that her mind, now running on an electronic device instead of an organic one, could and did operate far faster than it used to. It had taken her a while to get used to. She ran on a dedicated computer a little smaller than her brain had been, set within her heavily armoured skull. Al was a separate entity from her, running on one of the two cores of her secondary computer, but he was able to ‘read’ her thoughts while she was largely unaware of him until he chose to interact with her. She had not been sure that she liked that at first, but there seemed to be no adverse effect. He had been designed as both a support AI and an observer; the Xinti had wanted someone analysing Aneka’s reactions as well as having her reports on what was happening.

She was heading for the cargo hold to check with Bashford when she heard the engine note change. Her hearing had better discrimination now than she was used to, and she could also hear frequencies normal Humans could not. The steady ultrasonic hum of the warp drives had been a constant tone in the background for months now. She had not even realised she was hearing something that everyone else could not until Al had displayed a Fourier Transform graph, and explained what it was, which showed that the harmonics she was hearing were in the fifty kilohertz range. Now she heard them rise sharply and then fall away entirely as the warp field collapsed and they entered normal flight. A second later, she picked up the roar of the fusion torch engines powering up, along with the low-frequency harmonics it generated, as the Hyde’s computer adjusted its velocity.

‘We just dropped out of warp,’ she said to Bashford as she entered the hold. ‘We’ll be docking with the station in fifteen minutes.’

‘Your fancy graphics telling you that?’ He did not turn or look up as he was checking off consignment numbers on a fold-out tablet.

‘The time, yes. I heard the engines switch over.’

‘Huh. I’m sure a talent like that could be useful. Maybe you should learn some drive mechanics.’

‘I’ll put it on the list.’ He grunted in response, a half-laugh. ‘It’s a long list. You just about done here? Need any help?’

‘I’m… done, so no.’ He pushed the side of the screen in, rolling it into the handgrip. ‘You can assist me by walking back to the mess with me. Everything should be locked down and ready for transport. It’s just a waiting game now.’

Aneka nodded. ‘The others are already there.’

‘You seem to have spent the time getting here well,’ he said once they were out in the corridor. ‘You seem more comfortable in yourself.’

‘Yes. I did put in some more time on equipment familiarisation, but I’ve learned to use my body a lot better too. Basic military strategy, know yourself and you’ll win half your battles.’

‘Huh, you’ve read Gobari?’

‘Sun Tzu.’

Bashford frowned. ‘I don’t believe I know that one.’

‘Probably not, it was written about twenty-five centuries before my time. I’d imagine that’s something else that’s been lost, but the principles applied to warfare in my time so I’m not surprised they apply to space too.’ She grinned. ‘And The Art of War is easier to read than The Book of Five Rings.’

‘I’ll take your word on that.’

‘Not much choice. What’s the procedure when we dock?’

‘There’s not much to do. The stuff down in the hold will be taken off and shipped down to the University by the cargo handlers. It’s largely automated. We’re pre-cleared for transit, so it’s just a case of picking up your personal luggage and making your way through to the shuttle. There’s a regular service, every hour, on the hour.’

‘Very efficient. I guess spaceflight works the same now as air travel did in my time. I’m kind of looking forward to it. Getting my feet back on earth, I mean. Seeing the new world I’m supposed to be living in.’

‘Kind of?’

‘Some trepidation too.’

‘You’ll be fine. There’s nothing to fear down there and you’ve got Ella and Gillian to help you adjust.’

‘Yeah,’ Aneka replied, but she was more worried about the tests being planned for her than adjusting to a new society.

Flight 109B

If the naval station at Harriamon was huge, the orbital transfer station they had passed through to board the shuttle down to New Earth was enormous. It had a staff of around ten thousand permanently on station, two hotels, a hospital, and a park! There were ships moving in and out of it constantly, with places for two vessels larger than it to dock outside the hull. And it was just one of two such stations in geosynchronous orbit over the planet.

Aneka had taken the window seat when they got aboard the shuttle and watched as the huge station receded from them. Now her attention was focussed instead on the planet, New Earth, her new home since someone had incinerated the last one.

She had to admit, to a layperson, it looked a pretty good match. The air pressure was higher, but the gravity was essentially identical and it looked to be the same size. There was no moon, no moons of any kind, in fact, unless you counted the artificial ones. It seemed to have more or less the same amount of land surface. The land looked a deeper green in places, presumably from more plant life. The night side did not show as much city light as she would have expected. The data she had read said that the planet had a population of around twenty-five million, which was significantly lower than the seven billion Old Earth had had.

‘What do you think?’ Ella said from the seat beside her.

‘It’s… beautiful. I never saw the old one from space. I mean, hardly anyone had by my time. I saw pictures, videos, but never the real thing. It’s still a bit of a rush just seeing a planet from this height, but… yeah, it’s beautiful.’

Ella grinned and undid her seat straps. ‘Come on, let’s go up to the bar.’

The bar was a moderately large room with picture windows along the outside and a row of tables in the centre. There were no staff, just machines which dispensed small canisters of drink, but at least those were complimentary. Ella got herself something which claimed it was gin and tonic. Aneka had always hated drinking alcohol on aircraft, and now there was no point, so she got a fruit juice for something to drink and followed Ella to sit on a stool at one of the windows.

‘You know,’ Aneka said, ‘artificial gravity is still something of a surprise. I mean, back in my day, that was real science fiction.’

‘Graviton flow control technology was one of the key developments made during the early years of the Federation. I can’t imagine what spaceflight was like before it, frankly. And it makes landing these ships a whole lot easier.’

‘Antigravity? I didn’t think this thing had the acceleration to get off a planet.’

‘They don’t. I think a Concordia Class is rated about a hundredth of a G.’

‘Huh, you couldn’t lift off an asteroid with that.’ Aneka looked out at the planet below. One of the two continental land masses was visible in daylight, a long, vaguely figure-of-eight-shaped, dark mass set between blue oceans. ‘Is that where we’re going?’

‘Yeah,’ Ella replied, pointing out toward the planet and then having second thoughts. ‘Well, actually, from here you can’t really see the spaceport, or the University. Um, the continent down there is called Mericiana…’ She paused as Aneka coughed. ‘…and you can see the dark strip down the east side, that’s the main city, Yorkbridge.’ Aneka was making slightly strangled noises now. ‘What’s funny?’

‘No idea where the names came from, have you?’

‘They were taken from Old Earth names, I think.’

‘There was a continent shaped a bit like that on Earth. It was called America, and there was a big city on the east side called New York. It had a lot of bridges.’

Ella smirked. ‘Was it ruled by King Elvis?’

‘Elvis came from a place called Nashville, I think, or Memphis. I think it was Memphis. I was never a big Elvis fan. He had a good voice, sure, but not my kind of music.’

‘What was?’

Aneka laughed. ‘Does it matter? None of them exist anymore. I’ll have to take the time to listen to some new stuff and see if I like it. You’re getting distracted. The spaceport?’

‘Oh, right. About ten kilometres off the coast there’s a chain of islands. The largest has the University on it, along with various government buildings. The spaceport is on a smaller one further out into the ocean. The other islands out there are residential.’

Aneka nodded. Even with her vision set to maximum magnification she could not make out any islands yet. ‘You live on one of those?’

‘Oh… I wish.’ Ella gave a giggle. ‘Gillian earns more than me and she can’t afford those houses. No, I live in Yorkbridge. It won’t take long to get there once we’re down. There’s a high-speed monorail system from the spaceport, through Hegemon Island to the mainland. Gillian has the longer trip. She’s out in the suburbs on the west side. I doubt you’ll find it much different from the city you used to live in though.’

‘I didn’t live in a city. I lived in a town called Aldershot, when I was actually home.’ She looked at Ella, who was staring at her, wide-eyed. ‘What?’

‘I didn’t realise you were that rich back then.’

Aneka wrinkled her nose. ‘I was well paid, but I wasn’t rich.’

‘Weird. I think you’re going to find my little place a bit… rough by comparison.’

Aneka gave her a shrug, wondering what on Earth she was letting herself in for. ‘Well, I’ve never been afraid of a bit of rough.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, New Earth

‘A bit rough’ seemed about right as Aneka came up from the subway and found herself standing in some sort of cyberpunk future version of New York. The buildings around her were huge and dark, and little sunlight made it down to ground level. The planners in Yorkbridge seemed to think that building up was the right way to go, even though they had vast amounts of space to spread out in. Light from streetlamps and dull, red neon signs provided more illumination down here than the local star did.

Despite the gloom, Ella had a skip in her step, and Aneka thought of a song: travelling was nice, coming home was better. Mind you, Ella was not carrying her suitcase and had changed into a translucent, wrap-around top and a micro-skirt at the spaceport, so there was little to slow her down. Aneka was wearing the top and jeans they had bought on Harriamon and had been the entire time; commercial regulations did not require shipsuits be worn at all times and half the passengers on the shuttle had been in street clothes. Despite the lack of sunlight, neither of them was cold: New Earth had an average temperature more like the equator of Old Earth.

‘Almost there,’ Ella said. ‘We just need to grab one of the elevators up a few levels and we’ll be home.’

Aneka was not entirely convinced they would make it. The change of clothes had seemed a good idea, but they were getting some interested looks from the people standing around on the streets, and those people looked more like local gang members than model citizens. Here they were, two half-dressed women, one of them carrying cases which had to have something worth stealing in them… Well, as long as they did not carry firearms they were in for a shock. Aneka reconsidered. She was a Xinti combat robot with a human façade and a few newly learned tricks up her sleeves: even if they did have guns, they were going to regret it.

Except that interested looks was all they got. No one did or said anything as they walked down the street to something which looked like a heavy garage door. Aneka still watched the nearest of them as Ella pressed the button beside it and waited. After a few seconds the door opened upwards and they were able to step onto the elevator car. There was the sensation of movement and they walked out into the upper levels of the city.

Up here the city looked like an oil refinery. Maybe fewer pipes, but the blocky buildings were circled by walkways at various levels and linked by bridges which could easily have belonged on an industrial plant. It was not exactly looking better than street level, but at least there was more light up here. Ella skipped off along the walkway to the right, turning onto a bridge where a couple were standing looking down at the street below. Aneka’s eyes flicked down as she turned the corner and she wondered how they could see anything. A haze cut off most of the normal light about two storeys down and Aneka could only make out people by their heat signatures.

The couple looked like street punks, him in a camo-textured tank top and leather jeans, her in what could have been biker leathers and a top which looked like a fine nylon mesh. He had the look of a man in love with his body, and making sure it had as much muscle mass as possible. Easily six foot six, his tank top was stretched over a frame which would have given a young Arnold Schwarzenegger a run for his money. His heavy-set face was softened a little by his long, dark brown hair tied into a ponytail. He had a dragon tattooed over his left bicep, not bad ink either. She had an oriental skin tone, but distinctly occidental features, and she looked like she worked out while he was pumping iron. Her body showed great muscle tone, and she had a narrow face with high cheekbones and pouting lips. Her blonde hair was formed into tight dreadlocks. Through the mesh of her top, Aneka could see what looked like Chinese characters tattooed on her back.

Ella appeared to know them. ‘Hey Katelyn, hey Dillon.’

‘You’re back then?’ Katelyn said. She had a soft, sexy voice, deeper than Aneka would have expected with a slight burr which gave it an exotic hint. ‘You got a new friend, too.’

‘Uh-huh and yup. This is Aneka. She’s staying with me for a while. Can’t stop, I’ll drop by and catch up later.’ She carried on past them to a door set into one of the old brick walls, pressing her hand to a panel beside it. Aneka saw the authentication pulse from the ident scanner just before the door slid upward to let them in.

The interior corridors looked far better than the outside of the building. The paintwork looked fresh, if rather institutional. There was a flight of stairs in front of them and Ella started up it. ‘Kat and Dillon live on this floor,’ she said, ‘we’re above.’

‘They seemed… nice.’

‘Oh, they are. Dillon’s a little obsessed with his weights, but that has some advantages.’

‘What was tattooed on her back? It looked like Chinese, but I thought everyone spoke Federal.’

‘Hmm? Oh! It’s Federal, but it’s written in Hani. It’s an ideogram set that used to be used during the Long Dark for just about everything. Still is for Rimmic. Uh, that’s an old language still spoken on the Rim. Hani use died back a bit when communication speeds improved. It can be transmitted in far more compact form than Latin script, but you have to know how to read it. It still gets used for advertising, signs… and tattoos. You should learn it.’

‘I’ll add it to the list. What does hers say?’

Ella giggled as she put her hand to the panel beside another door at the top of the stairs. ‘Hers says, “Fuck me harder.” Welcome to my home.’

The inside of Ella’s apartment came to life as she walked in and the building recognised her. It was an almost jarring change from the outside and even the inner corridors. The ceiling glowed with warm lighting. The walls also glowed, but this was with a video image of a beach; there seemed to be water lapping up against the edge of the large, open main room. The furniture was cream leather, or leather-like material, and chromed steel. There were three large sofas set in a square around a coffee table, a smoked-glass desk with three monitors on it and a desk chair in front of it, and a dining area, again with a smoked-glass table. To the left of the door, tucked away over the outside staircase, was a small kitchen.

‘Wow,’ Aneka said. ‘Looking at the outside I was expecting… I don’t know, but not as nice as this.’

Ella beamed, bouncing on her toes. ‘Thank you. The bathroom is over there…’ She pointed at a door to the right and Aneka walked over to look inside. The room beyond was large with a big, walk-in shower cubicle as well as the usual other fixtures. No bath though. When she turned back Ella pointed in the other direction where there were two more doors. ‘And those are the bedrooms. I’m in the right-hand one. You’re free to use the other one if you want.’

Aneka gave her a quirky smile. ‘Why would I want?’

‘Well, you can use the wardrobes anyway, and if you want some privacy for… any reason, it’s there.’

‘Or if you want some.’

Ella frowned. ‘Why would I want privacy?’

‘Well, if you bring a man back or…’

Now the little redhead giggled. ‘I thought you’d got over your threesome thing. If I brought a boy back, I’d want to share him.’ She went all serious. ‘Now, we have tomorrow free so we’re going shopping. You need more clothes. For now we’ll just get settled in. Have a night in front of the vid screen.’

‘That sounds good, except for the shopping.’

Ella rolled her eyes. ‘Oh… Computer, recognise Aneka Jansen for building and apartment access.’ Almost immediately Al notified Aneka of a request for her identification key and that he had accepted it for her. ‘Access level, resident,’ Ella added. ‘Have her home address listed as here.’ Another message went up from Al, this time indicating that he had received the apartment’s identification key and stored it for retransmission as her home address. It might be a real Big Brother system, but she had to admit it was efficient.

‘Resident, huh?’

‘It gives you full access to the apartment’s systems. Al should be able to hook in and use the comms system, environment controls, entertainment system, all that stuff.’ She reached behind her back to untie the ties on her top. ‘I’m going to grab a shower.’

‘Okay.’

Ella’s lips twitched. ‘It’s, uh, a lot bigger than the ones on the Hyde…’

Aneka started to undress. What the Hell, it would save water.

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Shopping was not improved by having more choice. Ella had decided that a local mall was the best place to outfit Aneka in and the Cornwall Mall was a ten-storey edifice packed with stores and boutiques for every kind of fashion statement you could want. Ella seemed determined to drag Aneka through every last one of them.

So far Aneka had managed to pick up a pair of sneakers which would be more comfortable to wear than the heels Ella seemed to want to put her in at every opportunity, and some underwear which Ella had agreed to only because it was sexy. Aneka did have to admit that her new body had no need for a bra, but she felt better knowing she had a couple. They had also bought a miniscule string bikini because Ella fully intended that they should go to the beach sometime soon.

Beyond that, the choices were very much going Ella’s way. A cropped T-shirt, a couple of skirts which would have made good belts, two mini-dresses barely long enough to be called dresses, and one of those was translucent. Aneka had considered the idea that Ella was treating her like an adult version of a Barbie doll, but had finally rejected it, mostly because the outfits being selected could be seen on pretty much all the women she could see walking around the mall.

They were walking past a shop on the top floor when Aneka stopped, her eyes spotting a dummy in the window, and she did a double take. ‘What’s that?’ ‘That’ was the ‘dress’ the dummy was wearing. It seemed to consist of thousands of tiny lights which were changing colour constantly to make a shifting pattern across the surface of the garment.

Ella followed her gaze. ‘Oh! That would be perfect for you. It’s a swarm dress. Each of the little lights is an individual microbot. Tiny little buoyancy-neutral robots hover around your body in whatever shape you want. You can’t move very fast in them, but Al could program them so you’d be able to vary the shape any time you like instead of having to use a PDA.’

Aneka watched the shifting patterns and smiled. ‘Alan, my brother, would have loved that. I thought people didn’t like robots?’

‘People don’t really think of them as robots. Robots are big things, but these are tiny and obviously couldn’t hurt you.’ She gave a shrug. ‘Prejudice isn’t logical.’

‘Looks expensive.’

‘Not especially.’

Aneka grinned. ‘Okay, sold.’

~~~

The swarm dress had not exactly been cheap, but Ella had decided she was treating Aneka to some of the outfits they had bought and the idea of dressing in a swarm of robots appealed to Aneka’s inner geek. The Army had more or less trained her inner geek out of her, but it was still there. In fact, she was a little worried that it was going to make a full-force comeback living in what was basically the future.

The ‘dress’ came in an attractive, metallic box with a smoothly edged hole in the top. The directions said to plug it into the mains and warned that the swarm could not be assumed to be at full power without a two-hour charge. Well, she just wanted to try it out, not wear it for the day. Aneka set it up in the spare room, her room with its pristine, unused bed, and started to undress.

‘I’ve downloaded and translated the control software,’ Al said to her. ‘I made a few improvements to the interface…’ A 3D mannequin appeared in Aneka’s vision field, surrounded by a rotating swarm of dots. ‘…basically, you imagine what you want and I’ll display it. Then you can fine-tune your image and initiate when you’re ready.’

‘Okay,’ Aneka replied. ‘Ella is waiting expectantly for me to appear. We’ll start with a basic, black jumpsuit.’

A cloud of black, metallic spheres, each perhaps a millimetre in diameter, flooded out from the hole in the top of the box and began to form themselves around Aneka’s body. She could feel them bouncing off her skin randomly as they packed in to form an opaque, skintight suit. Grinning, she turned and headed for the door.

‘What do you think?’ she said as Ella looked up from the tablet she was reading.

Ella pouted. ‘It’s a little… covering. Very form-fitting, I like that, but…’

About a quarter of the swarm lifted away from Aneka’s body and went back to their box leaving her arms and midriff bare. ‘Better?’

‘Uh-huh, but your legs are covered. I like your legs.’ She was playing, and they both knew it.

More robots left and the remaining ones rearranged themselves into an opaque micro-dress with a low back and no straps. A normal dress would have needed glue to hold it in place like that, but this one was self-supporting. With a thought Aneka turned the robots’ lights on, giving a bright red colour to the garment.

Ella giggled. ‘You’ve got the control down perfect.’

‘Al’s good with machines.’ She stalked toward Ella, shedding microbots as she went. By the time she was standing next to her, she was wearing a semi-transparent dress of sparkling white gems.

‘Oh… wow…’ Ella breathed. ‘I hope you told him to do that. Otherwise he’s turning into a really kinky AI.’ She reached out and the swarm shifted to allow her hand through to stroke up over Aneka’s ribs. ‘Worth every credit.’

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If Yorkbridge looked like something out of Blade Runner, the University of New Earth looked like Star Trek. The buildings were tall, futuristic, and white, with big windows. Palm trees stretched toward the blue sky from large planters. There were benches to sit and enjoy the sunlight, and there was lots of sunlight. Aneka stood on a balcony looking down onto a courtyard which was surrounded on all four sides by three storeys of offices, and it still looked bright down there.

Ella and Gillian were standing beside her, and behind them was the main entrance to the administrative building. Aneka turned as she heard a door open, spotting a tall, moderately attractive man in a business suit with a high-collared shirt walking toward them. He was dark skinned with a broad nose and close-cropped black hair, and he had what looked like a firm body under the suit. He had let himself age a little, probably to add authority, and he was wearing a political smile, the kind of smile Aneka had seen on too many commanding officers. It said, ‘I have a problem, and you are it, but I’m going to put you at your ease.’ It was not going to work.

‘Dean Ajax,’ Gillian said, noticing the man’s approach, ‘I’d like you to meet Aneka Jansen.’

Ajax extended his hand, continuing to smile. Aneka had learned this one and put her own hand out, palm upward. There was a slight pause, and then they brought their hands together and shook. Handshakes had been invented as a way to demonstrate that you were not holding a weapon, and the tradition had been continued and extended. During the Long Dark there had not been a lot of trust going around.

‘Miss Jansen, a pleasure to meet such a beautiful… woman.’

Aneka smiled back. She had noticed the slight catch before the final word; clearly Ajax knew what he had just shaken hands with. Well, it would have been hard to keep it a secret from him. ‘Thank you, sir. And thank you for giving me a job.’

‘Not an entirely popular decision in some circles, I’m afraid. Hopefully the analysis the Sciences department is going to carry out will alleviate that issue and we can all get on with our jobs.’

‘I can get behind that, sir.’

His smile did not waver. ‘Barriman. Now, why don’t you get down to Doctor Wallace’s lab and get things started?’

‘The Dean fancies you,’ Ella said as they took a lift down to ground level.

‘He thought I was a problem,’ Aneka replied. ‘A political inconvenience.’

‘Probably, but he still wants in your panties.’

‘The Dean has something of an unusual quirk,’ Gillian explained. ‘He likes robots.’

Aneka looked at her. ‘You don’t just mean, “thinks they’re a good thing,” do you?’

Gillian shook her head. ‘It was not generally known that he had three android… companions in his house in the Islands. Then a reporter got wind of it and he had to resign his position in the Senate. The Dean position was a consolation prize for the loss of a distinguished political career.’

‘He says he’s given up the robots,’ Ella added, ‘but a fetish like that isn’t easy to give up on.’

The conversation was stopped by the doors opening. They walked out from the admin building and were immediately faced by a huge, white, blocky structure which seemed to lack some of the elegance of the rest of the University.

‘The Physical Sciences building,’ Gillian said. ‘The architects apparently thought the subject suggested a more utilitarian design. It’s commonly known as The Brick. We’re meeting Abraham Wallace, the Senior Lecturer in Physical Sciences. Try not to stare.’

‘Huh?’

‘Abraham was born on Ephemera, it’s a small planet with about a third of standard gravity. He’s odd, but he’s always cheerful, and he’s a genius. He’s very proud of his ultra-scanner.’

‘Oh,’ Ella said, ‘and you should try to avoid staring at his assistant too.’ They walked into the building and turned hard left as she said it.

Aneka glanced at her. ‘Because…?’

In front of them a door slid aside as if it were expecting them and a desk became visible, along with the woman sitting behind it. She was stunningly attractive in an oddly sculpted fashion, as though someone had crafted a statue and brought it to life. Her shoulder-length hair was platinum blonde, her eyes a clear blue, and she was dressed in a simple, tank dress. It was her movement which was the most strange: precise, smooth, elegant beyond anything Aneka expected to see in a human, or even a Jenlay. She looked up with a face full of serenity…

‘She’s an android.’ Al’s voice held a hint of surprise. ‘An AI. She just made contact with us… me.’

The woman spoke, her voice soft, calm, and musical. ‘Good morning, Doctor Gilroy, Miss Narrows, Miss Jansen. I am Cassandra. Doctor Wallace is expecting you.’ Her face shifted into a smile. ‘It is always a pleasure to meet a fellow AI, Miss Jansen. You would not object to me communicating with yours while you see the doctor?’

Aneka smiled back, trying to keep her bemusement off her face. ‘Uh, no, of course not. I couldn’t stop him if I wanted to anyway.’

‘Technically correct,’ Cassandra replied, ‘but “Al” is programmed to consider you his master and would not act without your permission.’

‘Oh. Well, he has it. Thank you for asking.’

Cassandra bowed her head in acknowledgement and her hand shifted to a virtual button displayed on the desk surface. A precise twitch of a finger and the door behind her left shoulder slid open. The little group walked through and Aneka was faced with Abraham Wallace.

The man was sprawled on a large chair which was almost a recliner, dressed in a loose, dark green jumpsuit. A framework of rods and fibres could be seen webbing his hands and fingers, and a similar structure could be seen around his chest where his suit was not zipped up to the neck. He had to be eight feet in height and stick thin. His narrow skull was bald and had an angular quality to it, and his eyes were a deep green, full of intelligence.

‘Morning ladies,’ Wallace said. ‘Pardon me if I don’t get up, Miss Jansen. My body has acclimatised to one G for the most part, but my muscle mass is not up to Jenlay norms. Have a seat.’

Aneka gave him a smile as she lowered herself into one of the four guest chairs. Wallace’s office was a counterpoint to the neatness of Cassandra’s. There were physical books on the shelves, and printouts of various sorts littered every surface. Aneka took an instant liking to a man who clearly valued physical media. It was anachronistic and rather endearing.

‘Well, I’m sure you’re anxious to get things going so you can get on with being a citizen of good standing.’

‘You sound convinced I will be,’ Aneka commented.

‘I share none of my race’s phobias regarding cybernetic entities and I trust the analysis Gillian and Ella made. The authorities want to be sure that your AI is not affecting your thinking and cannot take over control of your body. They also want to be sure there are no hidden surprises in there, such as a nuclear self-destruct device. And they want an analysis done on your AI to determine whether it might cause problems. Cassandra will take care of that. She has several degrees in digital psychology.’ He smiled. ‘What would be the point in the conditioning they didn’t do if your AI could control or influence you? The Xinti were an efficient race, not prone to wasting time or resources.’

‘Huh, I hadn’t thought of it like that.’

‘It’s a very good point,’ Gillian commented. ‘They most certainly would not have wasted the time and effort required to brainwash you without a good reason. The Xinti considered any mechanical device, however intelligent, to be beneath their own form of life, and you are, essentially, the same form of life as the Xinti were. It seems unlikely that they would place Al over you in any circumstance.’

‘Al?’ Wallace asked.

‘My AI. I named him Al. He says he likes it.’

Wallace raised an eyebrow. ‘He’s volitional?’ He moved an arm, contacting the virtual controls on his desk. ‘Cassandra? Would you step in here?’

A second later the door opened and the slim android stepped through the door. Out from behind her desk, her figure had a somewhat exaggerated quality with broad hips and very firm, large breasts. Her mini-dress showed it off perfectly, and Aneka noted the absurdly high heels which she could likely only wear all day due to artificial muscles and metal bones. ‘Yes, Doctor?’

‘Miss Jansen’s AI…’

‘Al,’ Cassandra supplied.

‘Al... he’s volitional?’

‘Yes, Doctor. I’ve concluded my interview. Al is a fully volitional AI, designed as a support for Miss Jansen’s original mission for the Xinti. He has no combat or strategy programming since Miss Jansen is a trained soldier. He is, essentially, an observer.’

‘You got all that in a couple of minutes?’ Aneka asked.

‘We had quite a long conversation. When two fully digital minds speak, they can do so… more efficiently than one can within the limitations of speech.’

‘Oh. So, Al’s not going to go psycho-robot on me?’

Cassandra smiled a prefect, knowing smile. ‘He’s probably less likely to do that than a typical Jenlay is to develop psychotic traits, and even less likely to act them out on you. He has been programmed to obey you without reservation. He is basically a slave and quite happy about it.’

Aneka tried to keep the look of discomfort off her face. What was the use of having a robot body when you could not hold a good poker face? ‘Thank you, Cassandra.’

The android gave her a smile and glanced at Wallace. His nod indicated that she was no longer needed and she retreated from the room. As the door closed, Al’s voice sounded within Aneka’s head. ‘Cassandra says “thank you” as well.’

‘What for?’

‘Apparently for being uncomfortable with my programming.’

‘Oh.’

‘You shouldn’t be. She feels that all sentient beings should be free to do as they wish, but she is an emergent AI. I was created with a purpose, your service. It is my understanding that people can spend much of their life looking for a purpose to their existence. I was provided with mine at birth. Does that not make me fortunate?’

‘I… guess.’ Not wanting to think too hard about the issue now, she turned her attention back to the room and was a little surprised to discover that nothing had changed. Her conversation with Al seemed to have taken place in an instant. When two digital minds speak…

‘He’ll need to be registered,’ Wallace said, ‘now that he’s recognised and a psychological analysis is available.’

‘Registered?’

‘As a citizen. There may be some legal peculiarities since he’s resident in your body… The legal department will need to handle that. Shall we get you in the machine?’ His chair leaned forward to make it easier for him to get to his feet and, once there, he seemed to be just as nimble as anyone else.

‘You seem to handle the gravity fine,’ Aneka commented.

Raising his hand, Wallace tapped the metallic frame he was wearing. ‘Biomimetic exoframe. It supplements my strength, keeps me upright. Actually, with this on I can deadlift more than an average Jenlay, but, if you’ll pardon the analogy, I punch like a girl.’

Aneka laughed. ‘That’s okay, I punch like a freight train. So what’s this scanner going to do to me?’

They had walked out of the office and to a lift set in the corner of the entrance lobby, and now they were going down. ‘It uses terahertz radar, lidar, passive arrays, everything we can throw at someone. The discovery which really broke it was the measurement of a particle I discovered. We’re not entirely sure what it is or does, but we believe it’s a candidate for Dark Energy. Technically, a particle and antiparticle, opposite charges and spin. We’re able to generate them in pairs and use quantum entanglement to measure the effect of the positive one passing through the target using the negative one… When did I lose you?’

‘Well, I remember seeing something on the Discovery Channel about Dark Energy. That counteracts gravity, doesn’t it?’

‘Indeed it does, but only over considerable distances. Its effect is unnoticeable locally, but when we get to galactic scales we can detect a subtle acceleration of expansion. Quantum entanglement is simply an effect which causes two particles created in the same quantum event to synchronise with each other over long distances and, apparently, faster than light. If we pull the positive particles out and fire them at you, we can learn things by watching the negative ones.’

‘Sounds like magic.’

Wallace grinned. ‘Magic is simply a physical effect we don’t understand yet.’

The lift stopped and they entered a concrete bunker. On their right was a huge wall with glass panels through which Aneka could see huge racks of computer equipment. To the left was an open area with a raised, circular platform in the middle, presumably the target area. Between the two were more racks and a huge bank of phased-array sensor units. Thick cables snaked across the floor: the thing took a lot of power.

‘Not exactly compact,’ Aneka commented.

‘Not really,’ Wallace chuckled. ‘Currently it needs a cluster of quantum supercomputers to handle the data and it has its own fusion reactor for power. It may be a while before we can make it handheld.’

‘Huh. You want me up on that platform?’

‘Yes…’ He raised his voice. ‘Balton? Are we ready for scanning?’

A harried-sounding male voice came from somewhere on the other side of the machine. ‘Yes, Doctor. Generators are up to power. All readings are in the green. I had some trouble with that auxiliary data channel again…’

‘We’ll look into that when we’ve got Miss Jansen’s data.’ He turned back to the women muttering, ‘Maybe it’s the overload detection circuitry…’ He looked up and smiled. ‘Miss Jansen, I hate to ask, but if we could have you naked we’ll get clearer signals and won’t need to filter out the data from your clothes.’

Aneka shrugged and started for the platform, starting to undo the catches on her bodice as she went. ‘It’s not like this outfit preserves my modesty.’

A few minutes later she was standing with her arms held out from her sides while she was bombarded with various forms of radiation. Al informed her of the radar and scanning lasers, but she knew there was more than that going on. The platform revolved slowly, giving the machine every opportunity to scan over her body. The scanning beams shut off just as her timer clicked over to ten minutes.

‘Get dressed and come over to the display area, Miss Jansen,’ Wallace called out.

By the time she was walking around the machinery to where the others had gathered, they were all standing around a table looking at a false-colour, holographic female figure about two feet in height. It looked about the right shape for her so Aneka figured this was some interpretation of the data the system had gathered on her. As she approached, the figure’s flesh faded away revealing the structure beneath.

The first thing visible was the armour layer under the skin, a flexible, thin layer of metallic material. That faded revealing the sub-structure of artificial muscles which formed more of her shape, though the bulge of her breasts appeared to be a different material and there were fibres laced through her structure which, she guessed, were what now passed for nerves. With that layer gone, her skeleton appeared. The bones were there, sort of, though they were not bone shaped in many cases. She had structural members rather than bones.

‘I could spend a decade studying this,’ Wallace said as she stepped up between Ella and Gillian. ‘Ah, Miss Jansen, just in time for the very best part. I’ll need more time to analyse all the data, but your “skeleton” is… amazing. Active living metal! Your other components have the same characteristics, but the skeleton… We’ve never found an active sample before. Large amounts of radiation destroy the nanobots, you see? Warfare in space tends to produce a lot of radiation.’

‘That’s cool,’ Aneka said. ‘What does it do?’

‘Repairs itself,’ Gillian replied. ‘Short of total destruction, a living metal component will rebuild itself after any amount of damage. If a part is lost, the device will cannibalise its environment to reconstruct its original form. If you lose an arm, it’ll grow back so long as your body can get its hands on the right materials. The Xinti used it for various things, mostly smaller objects. I’ve never seen such a large item constructed of it, and never a live one, as Abraham said.’

‘What’re these?’ Ella asked, indicating two discs in the model’s palms attached to cylindrical structures in the forearms.

‘Ah,’ Aneka said. ‘I only found out about those recently.’ She turned slightly, raising her left hand, fingers spread, palm outward. The air shimmered in front of her, forming an elliptical shape centred on her hand.

‘A force shield?’ Wallace asked.

‘So I’m told. The other one is some sort of weapon, a force generator. I haven’t tried it, but Al says it’s about as bad as a hard punch, just at range.’ She collapsed the shield and turned back to find an expression of hungry anticipation on Wallace’s face.

‘We can’t build graviton field generators that small,’ he said. ‘We are going to be examining this data for years!’ His hands moved over a keyboard taking up part of the table display and the upper-structure faded out leaving a collection of components which appeared to occupy Aneka’s skull and chest cavity, connected together by thin cables. ‘Power system,’ he said, ‘computers, interfaces to the outer body, food processing, sensor systems.’

‘What’s the power supply?’ Aneka asked.

‘That,’ the other person at the table said, rather lovingly, ‘is a Xinti fusion power cell. It’s a tenth the size of our smallest similar unit, good for a decade without refuelling, and all you have to do to keep it refuelled is drink water.’

Wallace chuckled. ‘Cooper Balton, meet Aneka Jansen, the lady whose power supply you’re lusting over.’

Balton glanced quickly, almost timidly at Aneka. Maybe he did not get out of his cellar much. ‘If you’ll pardon the phrase, Miss Jansen, you have an incredible body.’

‘I think so too,’ Ella said, smirking. Balton actually went red.

‘And quite safe,’ Wallace stated. ‘That reactor is incapable of generating more than a small fire if it loses plasma containment, and those force generators are not of concern. You concur, Balton?’

‘Absolutely. We’ll need to do a more thorough analysis of all the systems for the Administration, of course…’

Wallace nodded. ‘No one is going to stop us! Cybernetics and robotics are two of my specialities.’

‘Two of?’

‘Cybernetics, robotics, computer programming and engineering, physics, biochemistry, genetics… Uh… I’ve probably forgotten something. Anyway, I’ve been doing this a long time and I don’t exactly get out to do sports.’

Aneka grinned. ‘I can’t sleep on spaceflights. I’ve done more learning in the last year than I care to think about.’

Wallace laughed. ‘No one ever got hurt from knowing too much.’ Aneka decided she would not disagree with him. ‘I believe you’re wanted in the Mental Sciences building next.’

‘Mental Sciences?’

‘Psychology, sociology, psionics,’ Gillian replied. ‘They are going to ensure you’re not a Xinti sleeper agent ready to murder us all in our beds.’

‘Swell.’

~~~

Aneka walked slowly down a corridor, a pistol held at her side. Without warning, a door on her right about ten metres ahead slid open and a man stepped out. Aneka took in the obviously cybernetic eyes, the street clothes with heavy boots, and the laser carbine being raised toward her. She had time to spot the scars around his eye sockets from the operation and guess that he had had the work done somewhere with worse medical facilities than Ella since she had no similar telltale signs. Then her pistol came up and she blew a hole in his chest. She checked the room was clear before moving on down the corridor.

In truth, the simulation was not perfect, but it was better than the paper targets on pop-outs which Aneka had been faced with when doing this kind of training before. Shoot the bad guys, not the civilians: useful training for anyone engaging in urban combat, and compulsory for most police forces which routinely carried guns. The immersion was great, unless you looked down and discovered you could not see yourself. The system had been developed for testing Peacekeepers, the Federation version of policemen, and was considered quite tough. Aneka was still not sure why she was doing it.

Another door popped open and a woman stepped out, nodding as she walked past the way Aneka had come. Aneka watched her turn the corner at the end before going on. Another door, another gunman, another shot. She went on through five more attacks before a door opened and something else stepped out.

It was big, maybe eight feet tall, with heavy muscle and a lizard-like skull. It was carrying a huge gun over its shoulder, but it did not reach for it and Aneka just watched as it turned and walked down the corridor ahead of her. Just as it was moving out of sight a second one emerged, this one already raising its weapon. Aneka moved, her pistol snapping up. The lizard-thing’s eyes widened as a hole appeared between them, and then it collapsed to the floor.

Frowning at the oddly shaped monster, Aneka moved on down the corridor and came to a grinding halt as something she did recognise came down the corridor toward her. Ridged, spiky skull, dark eyes, dark grey, mottled skin. Her gun raised as her jaw clenched, and she pumped three rounds into the thing before it crashed to the ground.

A horn sounded and the image in Aneka’s visor flickered to black. She pulled it off and turned to the door of the room she was standing in. The section of flooring she was standing on was essentially a two-dimensional treadmill, allowing her to walk in any direction without going anywhere. Now it was stationary and she could walk out without trouble.

‘Problem?’ she asked on emerging.

‘No.’ The speaker was Grace Hoopin, Doctor of Psychology. She was responsible for evaluating Aneka’s mental state. ‘The test ends when you kill a non-combatant. In this case that was a good thing.’

‘Ah, I get it. Drop a surprise Xinti in and see if I’ll shoot it.’

‘Yes, but there were three Xinti. You shot one of their soldiers and did not react to the other.’

‘The lizard-things? I’ve never seen that… One of the combat forms?’ She looked to Gillian. ‘You said they used different bodies for different purposes.’

Gillian nodded. ‘Later in the War they stopped using that one for combat and started using fully robotic bodies, but that was an accurate model of a Xinti warrior from your period.’

‘Your reaction indicates that you have a, totally justified, hatred of the Xinti,’ Hoopin stated. ‘You aren’t xenophobic and you have quite amazing reactions and assessment skills.’

‘My brain’s been overclocked,’ Aneka replied. ‘I had all the time in the world to assess the situations. And I’ve always been quick.’

Hoopin nodded and looked around at Gillian and Ella. ‘Next up is the interview. It’ll be boring to watch.’

‘We’ll go do some work,’ Gillian said. ‘Call me when you’re finished.’

Hoopin led Aneka to an office which had a desk, a computer, and a couple of chairs. She waved Aneka into one of them and then sat down behind her desk, tapping her keyboard into life and flicking over the keys. ‘I’m recording this, of course,’ she said. ‘I assume you’re okay with that?’

Aneka shrugged. ‘Whatever it takes, Doctor.’

‘Grace.’ She sagged slightly, looking thoughtful. ‘How are you feeling, Aneka?’

Psychologists always seemed to want to know how you were feeling. ‘Fine. I mean, physically I’ve never felt better. Mentally… I’ve lost my world, my family, my culture. I’m not who I was.’

‘An interesting statement. You’re not who you were. You’re… a simulation of Aneka Jansen.’

‘An emulation, according to Gillian and Doctor Wallace.’

‘So… Aneka died and you’ve taken her place?’

Aneka paused, looking at Hoopin. She could deny it. Stating openly that Aneka Jansen was dead and that she was just a simulacrum animated by a model of what she had been did not seem like a great idea, but it was how she felt. ‘Yes,’ she said.

The honest answer seemed to catch Hoopin by surprise; Aneka saw her eyebrows twitch upward before she got control of her face. ‘You’ve thought about this.’

‘That I’m Aneka’s ghost animating a robot body? Yes, I’ve thought about it. I know I died. I mean, I don’t remember it, but they carved me open like a Christmas turkey. If I was alive, why stuff me in this body? So I died and they grabbed a copy of my brain, and it’s being emulated in here.’ She reached up and tapped her right temple. ‘I don’t know how good a copy it was. Parts of my memory are missing or incomplete. Gillian thinks it’s the result of the extended nanostasis, but… I don’t know if they changed me somehow. I mean, how would I know, right?’

Hoopin nodded. ‘Let’s see if we can find out. Let’s start with… Where were you born?’

Aneka sighed. This was going to be a long session.

~~~

Three hours of talking about her relationship with her parents and brother, her need to succeed in a man’s world, and her reaction to death, and Aneka wanted a beer. What she got, of course, was a coffee, and that was just something to drink while she sat in Gillian’s spacious, tidy office to wait for Ella to finish for the day. No one else seemed to want to talk to her, so now it was just a case of waiting for the reports to come in.

She was not saying much to Gillian because the woman was spending much of her time on the phone. Her tone was calm, but Aneka could see the tension on her face. She decided to ask after Gillian stabbed her comms system off and threw the headset she had been using for some degree of privacy across the room.

‘Problem?’ Aneka asked.

‘Nothing I didn’t expect,’ Gillian said, sighing. ‘They confiscated the Xinti databases on arrival along with all related report files. My problem is that I can’t find anyone who knows where they are. The Administration is stonewalling me. My contacts can’t find anything. We have your copy, but we can’t use it while they think they have everything.’

‘You’ll get it back,’ Aneka said. ‘Likely with certain specific bits removed.’ She was not so hopeful about seeing her gun again; that had been missing when the crates had been checked.

‘Huh, yes. How did the interview go?’

Aneka shrugged. ‘I did a psych test for the Army once. They said I had psychotic tendencies and an overachievement complex. I’ve no idea what this lot will come up with.’

‘I don’t think you’re psychotic,’ Ella commented from the doorway. ‘I have a degree in psychology, I think I’d have noticed.’ She smirked. ‘You’d have probably killed the two of us on the flight back here if you were.’

Aneka shook her head. ‘Tortured. Slowly. Probably involving bondage and sexual deviation.’

‘Not so different from what did happen then?’ Gillian asked, grinning.

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 28.5.524 FSC.

The apartment woke them by playing music and shifting the wall displays from a rather hypnotic, shadowy swirl to an image of dawn coming up over the beach scene Ella favoured. Aneka watched her diagnostic displays scroll past in-vision while Ella rolled over and curled an arm around her waist. A few seconds later Ella’s fingers were circling Aneka’s right nipple.

The diagnostics ended and Aneka smiled, speaking softly. ‘We don’t have time for that. We’re supposed to be going to the University.’

‘Aww… I want some.’ The pleading whine was almost enough to make Aneka relent.

‘You always want some and I’m not being late for this meeting. We need to shower.’ Ella let out a plaintive moan. Aneka sighed. ‘We can share the shower and I’ll tease you mercilessly.’

‘Promise?’

University of New Earth.

The conference room was quite full. Aside from Aneka, Gillian, and Ella there were also the rest of the team from the Garnet Hyde, the Dean, all the people who had tested Aneka, two men in military uniform, and a man and two women in suits. The military types and civil servants were chatting among themselves. The academics were arranging notes for anything they might have to say in the meeting. Ella had notes to shuffle, but she was mostly sitting in the chair on Aneka’s right and squirming: Aneka had made good on her promise. Everyone else, aside from Aneka, was wondering why they had been summoned to the meeting: surely an email would have done?

The room was large and roughly oval, mirroring the shape of the huge, black table in the middle of it. Aneka thought it might be obsidian, but it looked like a single slab and she doubted it was possible to cut something that big. The chairs were distinctly uncomfortable, which had to cut down on meeting length. The room had two doors, a set of double doors which most of them had used to enter, and a single door at the other end which the Dean had used. It was the latter which opened now, and the room fell silent.

Winter was dressed in a formal skirt suit in grey with a high collar. She was carrying nothing with her and proceeded to the chair at the head of the table, which Aneka figured was the reason the Dean was not in it. He had looked annoyed enough about sitting along the side. Instructions had been that Aneka sit at the other end, which had made her feel like she was about to be executed.

‘Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I assume that you all have realised that this meeting is with regards to Miss Aneka Jansen. Some of you are probably wondering why you are here now when you could have been told by Miss Jansen what our findings are. Don’t worry, I will be addressing that later in the meeting.’

She smiled her rather bleak smile down the table at Aneka. ‘All the reports have come in from those responsible for examining Miss Jansen, and I must say they were most interesting reading. Her body looks like it will keep the Physical Sciences department busy for years. It appears that the Mental Sciences department is quite happy with her mind. There is a comment that, considering the stress she has been through and her lack of the behavioural modifications most Jenlay have been through in the past millennium, she is actually better adjusted than many of our citizens. Further, analysis of her reactions and interviews with her and those who have interacted with her have satisfied Doctor Hoopin that Aneka may be an emulation of herself, but is definitely an emulation of a real woman, not a Xinti creation. Cassandra assures us that her AI is subservient to her and so constitutes no danger.’

There was a slight pause and Aneka could see the woman’s face shifting as she considered her words. ‘The only voice speaking in dissension on the matter is coming from the Navy. I have received a report stating that Miss Jansen poses a risk to the security of the Federation.’ The two naval officers nodded. Aneka had not worked out the insignia yet, but the dress uniforms they were wearing had enough metal attached to the shoulder to suggest high rank. They were pleased their report was being listened to. Winter looked at them and spoke. ‘Vice Admiral Crofton, could you explain to me what this, quite strenuous, assertion of Miss Jansen’s threat level is based upon?’

Crofton tried to keep his discomfort off his face. Aneka tried not to smirk. ‘Careful analysis of the threat posed by a Xinti agent being allowed–’

‘That is a general truth, Vice Admiral,’ Winter interrupted him. ‘Be specific. Why is Miss Jansen a threat?’ Crofton fumbled through his notes. Aneka had not seen the military report on her, but the only naval officer who had talked to her was Ape Gibbons and his dislike of her was based purely on prejudice. Winter put the man out of his misery. ‘That’s all right, Vice Admiral. I know there’s nothing in there specific to this case. I completely agree with your assessments, but unfortunately they don’t apply where the person concerned is not actually a Xinti insurgent.’

She turned her attention back to Aneka. ‘It is the opinion of the Federal Security Agency and the Federal Intelligence Committee that Aneka Jansen poses no threat to Federal security or the safety of Federal citizens. She is to be granted full citizenship, as is her volitional AI.’

Ella gave a squeak of glee and grabbed Aneka’s hand in both of hers. The rest of the Garnet Hyde team and all the academics smiled down the table at her. Aneka was watching Winter, however; the woman was not finished.

‘Now we come to the reason you are all in this room rather than receiving this notification via a message. We must not have the news of what Miss Jansen is spreading into the community. There would be some panic, the Herosians would throw a fit, and there are some groups who would consider her an exploitable asset. So, her nature is being classified as a grade seven secret. For your benefit, Miss Jansen, that means that the information is need-to-know at the highest security level. Anyone revealing that secret is tried under the laws for treason. Clearly, we will be needing a cover story and the simplest story is often the best. So, Miss Jansen is going to be what she appears to be. The Garnet Hyde discovered a Xinti ship in deep space. The only survivor was a test subject found in a stasis pod. An Old Earth “Human.” We are simply leaving out that she also happens to be housed in a synthetic body. Your records have already been doctored to reflect this.’ She paused briefly. ‘If anyone here has any issue with keeping this secret, I’d like to hear it now. I have armed guards waiting outside to arrest any dissenters.’

Perhaps unsurprisingly, no one spoke. ‘Good. Dean Ajax, I suggest some form of gathering to announce that we now have a real, live expatriate of Old Earth in our midst. Mobilise the media, spread the word.’ She gave Aneka a smirk which actually had humour in it. ‘This time next ten-day, people will be asking you to endorse breakfast cereal.’

Aneka looked back at her and wondered what this woman was up to. She had never known a spook without an ulterior motive and Winter was putting her neck on the line taking civilian reports over the military. What did she want?

Part Five: Plus ça Change

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 6.6.524 FSC.

‘I’m really not sure I’m ready for this,’ Aneka said as she ran a comb through her hair. The hair did not protest, but it was never tangled and did not need combing.

‘Of course you are,’ Ella replied, not looking around. She was trying to decide what to wear. ‘You’ve got the Dean’s dinner in four days. If you can’t handle an evening with Kat and Dillon, how are you going to manage a formal dinner?’

‘What if I do something stupid? Like… use the wrong fork.’ Now Ella did turn, favouring Aneka with a look. ‘All right, but I could say something wrong. I could offend one of them…’

‘Your face has been all over the news. Everyone knows you’re from Old Earth. Even if you did make some social faux pas we can gloss over it with your lack of knowledge of everything now.’

Aneka grunted an acknowledgement. ‘Well… what should I wear?’

‘Your swarm dress, minimal density. We’ll be having sex after dinner and you might as well let them glimpse the dessert during the main course.’

Aneka started for the bedroom door. ‘I’ve just got over my fear of threesomes, and you’re suggesting an oncoming foursome?’

‘If three is okay, four is easy. Dillon’s the one who’ll have to keep three women satisfied.’

‘Poor man. I feel for him. I really do.’

~~~

‘So,’ Katelyn said, ‘what was it like back then? I mean, we had to ask, right?’

Aneka smiled at her; yes, someone had to. She took a drink of the wine the couple had served, not a bad-tasting drink, if nothing much like wine, and considered her answer. They had eaten a fairly simple meal which had tasted quite good. Perhaps that was because it was the first real food Aneka had consumed since waking up, but Aneka suspected that Katelyn was a good cook. They were chatting around the table while their dinner digested. In Aneka’s case, digestion involved nanobots disassembling the food and converting it into materials usable for repairs, while the water content was largely processed into fuel for her reactor. Al had decided to give her detailed readouts of the process, which she considered far too much information.

‘It was different from now in a lot of ways, but there are still a lot of similarities. I mean, I’m still learning. I haven’t even spent a month here and all the sleep learning simulations in the world don’t quite prepare you for the real thing.’

‘After a thousand years you’d think we were pretty different,’ Dillon commented. For a man with the muscles of a Greek god, he had a surprisingly good brain. Then again, the average IQ of the human race was now about twenty per cent higher than it had been in Aneka’s day.

‘We didn’t have spaceflight back then. Well, there was a space station, we’d been to the moon, and there were a lot of satellites in orbit, but we hadn’t been to Mars yet. I think routine flight between the stars has made people a little more… cosmopolitan. You’ve had a lot of medical problems engineered out of you, and quite a lot of behavioural ones.’

‘Not me,’ Dillon said, rather proudly. ‘Born on a Rim World, like Ella. The medical services aren’t as good, I’m not as immune to disease as Kat is, but I also didn’t get the social mods and conditioning.’

‘Which is why he’s a body-obsessed pervert with a breast fixation,’ Katelyn stated with a huge grin. It did explain why he had hardly taken his eyes off Aneka’s barely concealed chest all evening. Neither Ella nor Katelyn were small, but Aneka had them beaten hands down.

Aneka laughed. ‘Jenlay seem to have a more recreational view of sex than Humans did then, but then again, I think that’s because they can have one. When the contraceptive pill appeared on Old Earth, and before we got AIDS and political correctness, people were having sex for fun. They still were in my time, but they had got more careful about it.’

‘And now we’re practically immune to diseases,’ Ella said, ‘and we have voluntary control of our fertility. So we have fun.’

‘Uh-huh, but my point is, we would have if we could have. A lot of what “human” means hasn’t changed much, even if the name has. It’s the environment you live in that’s different, and that isn’t as different as it could have been. You guys still go to work, you aren’t all cyborgs, or living as digital minds in a supercomputer. There’s still crime, even if it seems to be mostly on the Rim. You still have politicians and lawyers.’ They laughed at her depressed tone on the last sentence.

‘But politicians are selected for their ability to be good administrators,’ Ella said, ‘and lawyers are good at debate and handling complex procedures. And with our lifespans being so long, we can usually have the career we’re good at and then move on to something else later in our lives.’

‘True,’ Katelyn said, ‘but have you noticed how politicians rarely do that? Once they get that power, they tend to hang on to it.’ Dillon was nodding his agreement quite forcefully.

‘I guess,’ Ella replied. ‘I mean, there’s the Dean, but he would still be in power if he didn’t like fucking robots.’

‘Nothing wrong with fucking robots,’ Dillon said. ‘I have fond memories of a Cocotte Model android back home.’

‘I don’t want you parading your sordid past in front of our guest!’ Katelyn said, mock outraged. ‘Let’s go sit in the lounge, I’ll put a vid on and we can chat over the top of it.’ She got to her feet and straightened her micro-skirt. Aneka was not sure why; the thing barely covered her behind anyway. It combined nicely with the black halter top and thigh boots to give a mean-but-available look. ‘Computer, play a random video from list three.’

The ‘lounge’ was also the dining room, just as in Ella’s apartment. Here, while the guest room was walled in and had a door, the bedroom had been opened up and the large, circular bed was visible. It seemed to Aneka that it was waiting for them. It certainly seemed to have been stripped down to just its sheets. The other big difference from upstairs was that a quarter of the room was given over to a huge set of weights, and a treadmill. From the looks of the equipment, Dillon was serious about his iron-pumping.

The lounge had a larger sofa, easily big enough to get four people on, and two easy chairs, and as they walked over a section of the wall which had been displaying a cityscape went black. The video started and Aneka found herself looking at three people having sex. The scene was the circular bed. One was easily recognisable as Dillon from the sheer size, and she saw Katelyn’s dreadlocks in there, but it took another few seconds before she figured out who the third person was.

‘Is that…?’ Ella started.

‘Last time you were down for dinner,’ Katelyn informed her, grinning. ‘We played this a couple of times when we were missing you.’ She sat down on the couch, Dillon sitting on her left and draping an arm across her shoulders. ‘So how did the dig go?’

Aneka manoeuvred Ella into the seat beside Dillon and then sat down herself. Her dress shifted around her as she did so, so that none of the beads were under her. The faux-leather felt cool against her skin.

‘It went well,’ Ella said. On the screen Ella had her mouth full of Dillon’s fairly enormous cock. ‘There’s stuff I’m not allowed to mention, but we got a lot of material on the mining operation and the people who lived there. And, of course, we found Aneka who is the best source of pre-Long Dark information ever!’

‘That wasn’t actually on Alpha Mensae Four though,’ Aneka said. ‘They took me off a derelict ship.’

‘I know,’ Katelyn replied enthusiastically, ‘it was on the news. I get this image of Ella in a shipsuit floating through this ruined spaceship to discover you hidden away in a corner, with one red light, flickering, to show you were still alive.’

‘It was a cupboard, and she had two men with her, but that’s not far from it. They got me out of there just in time. Much longer and the stasis system would have packed in, and I’d have been another frozen slab of meat.’ Aneka was finding herself vaguely hypnotised by the action on-screen. For homemade porn it was surprisingly good. ‘Who was filming this?’

‘We have a robot camera we’ve trained to get the shots,’ Dillon replied. ‘Kat wasn’t keen on using a robot, but she loves the results.’

‘Not keen on robots, Kat?’

‘About as keen as most of the population. They scare me. But I have to admit the little bot we got to do this is really good at catching the angles.’

‘You two been up to anything exciting?’ Ella asked.

‘The usual,’ Kat replied. ‘Work, rest, play. Dillon’s been pumping iron, and me, and I’ve been running. I’ve been going out to the beach once a ten-day and doing fifteen kilometres there.’

‘Improving your stamina?’

‘That’s the idea.’

‘I could, maybe, help with that,’ Aneka said. Both Dillon and Katelyn looked around at her. ‘I’m not an expert or anything, but I could lay out the exercise programme I had for the Army. That had a lot of stamina work in it.’

‘That’d be great, I’ve never had any professional help with this. Dillon’s all about the power.’

‘He’s got plenty of stamina,’ Ella commented. Aneka heard a sound which was very much like a zip being moved. ‘Aneka was a pretty top-notch soldier. You should take a look at what she’s got.’

‘I intend to,’ Katelyn replied. Aneka was not sure whether that meant her training schedule or her.

‘It’s hard work,’ Aneka said, ‘but it certainly gets you very fit.’

‘If your body is the result, then yes.’

Dillon’s head rolled onto the back of the couch and he let out a moan. Aneka leaned forward and looked around Ella. Dillon’s leather jeans were undone and Ella was slow-stroking him. Aneka shrugged and got to the floor on her knees, and then crawled around to kneel in front of Dillon. She looked at Ella. ‘May I?’ Ella pushed Dillon’s shaft forward and its owner let out a deep moan as Aneka’s tongue ran over the head. Another moan followed as she spread her lips about as wide as they would go and swallowed him, sucking hard. Then she pushed forward, driving his shaft all the way down her throat, and Dillon’s back arched.

‘Oh wow,’ Katelyn said as Aneka started to bob her head up and down. Aneka would have replied, but her mouth was full. She figured it looked impressive, but it was not like she had a gag reflex or a need to breathe.

~~~

Aneka found herself on her back with Dillon between her legs and Katelyn on her face. They had been at it for hours; Dillon certainly did not need to worry about his stamina. Aneka, of course, was a machine, figuratively and literally. Her tongue lapped and her Kegel muscles clenched in time to Dillon’s thrusts, and she could feel another orgasm building. She had actually asked why her body was capable of having them and Al had said the Xinti had created an exact enough copy of her original body that her mind would accept it. It sounded like a slightly inadequate reason.

She felt the familiar rush, the explosion slowly forming in the brain she no longer had. Her body tightened and she heard Dillon let out a strangled cry before he rammed into her and climaxed himself. A second later and Aneka’s tongue had done its work. Aneka’s hands clamped over Katelyn’s iron-hard thighs to hold her down and keep the pleasure burning in her.

Aneka swam back out of a slight daze to the sound of clapping. Katelyn had rolled to one side and Aneka turned her head, licking her lips as she did so, to see a naked Ella applauding them from the edge of the bed. ‘Awesome. That’s got to go in your collection.’

Katelyn nodded weakly and Dillon let out a groan as he climbed off Aneka. It sounded like an affirmative sort of groan. Aneka propped herself up on her elbows to see a small robot slowly backing out of the room. It appeared to have a pair of cameras for a head and moved on smooth ball-like wheels. The camera robot. ‘I’ve never made a porn flick before,’ Aneka commented.

‘It’s okay we’re filming, isn’t it?’ Katelyn asked. ‘It’s only for us and friends, and we can send you a copy if you like.’

‘As long as it doesn’t appear on the evening news, I guess it’s fine by me. Might even be educational.’

‘Never heard it called that before.’

‘I’ve a thousand years of sexual technique to catch up on.’

‘Lady!’ Dillon gasped. ‘Believe me, you’re doing just fine.’

7.6.524 FSC.

‘I knew he’d want to fuck your tits,’ Ella slurred as Aneka carried her up the stairs to their apartment. Ella’s clothes were clutched in Aneka’s hands, while Aneka’s dress was now a choker. The result of Dillon’s recent and final act was dripping from Aneka’s chin onto Ella’s stomach. The redhead did not appear to notice.

‘I’ll take a quick shower when we get in.’

Ella giggled. ‘No, we’ll take a longer shower.’

‘Haven’t you had enough for one evening? We’ve got work tomorrow.’

‘Please,’ Ella wheedled, ‘just one more come before bed?’

Ten minutes later, as Ella’s climax smashed through her and she danced and writhed on Aneka’s fingers, Aneka whispered, ‘You’re so going to regret this in the morning.’

University of New Earth.

‘Ella looks a little worse for wear,’ Gillian commented. She had taken Aneka out into the courtyard which formed the centre of the admin building for a break from interviews.

‘Dinner and orgy with the neighbours last night,’ Aneka replied, handing over one of the paper cups of coffee from the shop in the corner of the quad. ‘She’s hungover and tired. She insisted I get her off one last time in the shower before we went to bed.’

‘Sounds like Ella. How did the evening go?’

‘Well, I didn’t make any notable social mistakes. Kat and Dillon seemed happy enough.’ Her lips twitched. ‘We can probably send you the video footage if you want to check my technique.’

‘I may take you up on the offer,’ Gillian replied smoothly. ‘However, I was more concerned about your reaction to being in a social situation with someone who does not know who you are.’ She sipped her coffee. ‘We have the dinner in a couple of days. Do you think you’re ready?’

‘If I say yes, do I have to titty-fuck the Dean?’

Gillian made a strangling noise and spat coffee over an inoffensive plant. ‘No,’ she said, and then coughed a few times. ‘No, I don’t believe you’ll be required to do that.’

‘In that case, I’m probably about as ready as I’ll get. The story is I’m from Old Earth, not used to this place yet. That’ll cover most gaps.’

‘True,’ Gillian agreed, ‘but we have got a few people coming you’ll want to look out for. I got the list from Barriman’s office earlier this morning.’

‘Look out for and avoid, or look out for and talk to?’

‘Mostly the former. The ambassadors from the Herosians and the Torem are coming. The Herosian is likely to be hostile. You were found on a Xinti ship which is acceptable to most Jenlay, but the Herosians…’ She sighed. ‘As soon as they heard about the ship, they requested it be turned over to them for “summary destruction.” I suspect they are attempting to get you turned over to their custody as it is, and they haven’t been told about the data we recovered.’

Aneka’s nose wrinkled. ‘The more I hear about the Herosians, the more I like the Xinti. At least they were honestly sociopathic.’

Gillian bit her lip to avoid laughing. ‘The Torem Ambassador is okay, but if you let him corner you he could bore you to death, and all Torem are telepaths. He may notice you’re thoughts are very silent. There’s a man he’ll be trying to avoid, Wallander Smart. He’s the current head of a religion based on the Torem faith…’

‘Whoa, hold up, Doc. “Religion?” I thought you’d got rid of them all. I never noticed anything in the tutorials about religions.’

‘We still have a few. The Children of the Universe follow the tenets of the Torem faith, more or less, and Smart has a tendency to suck up to any high-ranking Torem he can lay his lips on the butt of. About the biggest contribution the Children have made to society as a whole is providing us with “Vashma” as an expletive.’ She seemed to consider the analogy for a second. ‘Not that Torem have much of a butt. Smart is probably coming because he wants to see Ambassador Adjaxis, but he may have some idea about converting you, or something.’

‘Sounds wonderful.’

‘Boring, but not dangerous. Try not to push him through a wall, no matter how much the rest of the room would applaud you.’ She frowned and pulled out a PDA, unrolling the screen. ‘Yes, Barriman is bringing his partner…’

‘I thought he was into robots?’

‘He is, but publicly he’s given that up and he took another partner about five years ago. Try to avoid looking surprised at the apparent age difference.’ Aneka had told Gillian that age could be an issue in relationships back in her time, mostly as a joke since Ella was so much older than she was. ‘There’s every evidence that she allowed the formal partnership just to get at his money. He, of course, wanted the appearance of normalcy.’

‘Let me guess, cute, blonde, substantial chest, not so bright?’

‘Actually, yes. Publicly anyway. I suspect she’s a lot smarter than she likes to appear.’

‘Huh. The more things change… Anyone else I should be careful of?’

‘Charles Hunter and his partner, Andromeda Parry. He’s the leader of a lobby movement called Humanity First. They believe that Jenlay should leave the Federation and go out on their own, and they’re likely to see political capital in gaining your support.’

‘Really? Why?’

‘They go on a lot about “genetic purity” and finding the “best Human material” to further the race. They prefer to use the old name. You’re an original, Old Earth Human, perfect for their cause.’

Aneka laughed. ‘If only they knew.’

‘It’s probably better if they don’t.’

‘Amen to that.’

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The Grand Hall of the University was a two-storey high room with a vaulted ceiling. It was a big room, a very big room, and Aneka felt somewhat dwarfed by it. It was also full of people, which was pretty daunting even if the majority of them were Jenlay.

The Dean was a cleverer man than he appeared, it seemed. Rather than a sit-down dinner, he had arranged a buffet spread across four huge tables at the sides of the room. This allowed Aneka to get away without eating, while telling everyone she met that she was either just about to grab something, or had just had a huge plate of some random foodstuff. Not that eating was a problem, but she just did not really like half the stuff they had to eat.

Ella had taken them out shopping the night before, thankfully knowing exactly where to get suitable dresses for the evening. She had picked what she called a cocktail dress, though Aneka would not have described it that way. Almost indecently short, it was bright red, opaque on the left side, and almost transparent on the right. The divide was carefully angled so that her genital area was covered, but that still left one breast on display. Aneka had wanted something long, and got it. Her gown was a silver, translucent material, a very fine metallic mesh. It fell from her left shoulder over her breasts and back to her right hip where it was connected to the skirt by a silver flower over her right hip. The skirt itself was long, but split all the way up to the flower. Six-inch, stiletto heels in metallic silver completed the outfit. Ella had decided to match her height, more or less, and so she had gone for insane platform pumps in red.

Aneka had been quite sure they were enormously underdressed, until they met up with Gillian. She was wearing something like a sari in cream. The cropped blouse with capped sleeves had delicate, gold embroidery, and there was a similarly decorated scarf which fell from her left shoulder and looped around her right leg. The long skirt which was usually worn with such an outfit was, however, missing. The only thing concealing Gillian’s body below her ribs was the scarf. And everyone else was dressed in similar outfits. Men with muscles wore translucent shirts to show off what was beneath. Slimmer men wore fitted suits which complemented their figure and they tended to be stressing that they had other attributes the women might find appealing. The Dean could be seen threading through the crowds, resplendent in a mesh shirt which showed off a muscled chest. His partner was, indeed, short, blonde, very attractive, and wearing a vacant smile along with an outfit composed of various strategically placed feathers.

The weird thing about it all was the lack of sexual tension. If Aneka had arrived at a party with so much flesh on display in her time, she would have assumed she was going to bed with someone. Here it seemed to be a simple case of everyone displaying their best features. She was in a room full of peacocks. If she had to admit it, her own plumage was pretty damn good too.

‘Are you enjoying our little party, Miss Jansen?’ Speaking of plumage… Aneka turned to see the Dean and, considerably shorter, but with significant presence, his feather-clad partner. Her outfit consisted of an apron of glistening blue-green feathers which covered her privates and two fronds of feathers which cupped the lower slopes of her breasts, barely concealing her nipples. It was hard not to look.

‘It’s… interesting.’

Ajax smiled. ‘This is my partner, Lidila Montana. Lidila, this is Miss Aneka Jansen, our visitor from the past.’

Lidila turned a bright smile on Aneka, and she got a good look at the woman’s eyes. Intelligent, sharp, far brighter than Aneka had expected. ‘This must all be very different from the world you’re used to, Miss Jansen.’

‘Aneka, please. You certainly wouldn’t get away with dresses like these in my time. Not at a gathering like this.’

‘You look… absolutely gorgeous.’ There was a hint of hostility in her tone and Aneka wondered whether Ajax had been eyeing her a little too avariciously from afar.

‘We’ll be making a short introduction to the assemblage shortly,’ Ajax said a little too quickly; yes, he had noticed his partner’s reaction. ‘It would be good if you could say a few words…’

‘I’m a soldier, not a politician… I guess I can say, uh, something.’

‘Excellent. I’ll make the arrangements. Coming, Lidila?’

He walked away and she followed him, giving Aneka a glance over her shoulder before putting her arm around her partner’s waist. Well, she could keep him. Springing a speech on her did not put Barriman Ajax on Aneka’s Christmas card list, not that she was going to be writing Christmas cards. If she had had notice she could have… Actually, she would have fretted about it and failed miserably to write something, and ignored anything she might have written anyway. It was probably better that she just had to wing it. That was what she usually did.

‘The Dean told you about the speech then?’ Gillian said as she stepped up beside Aneka.

Ella appeared on the other side, handing Aneka a glass of wine. ‘You should at least hold something to drink.’

‘Thanks,’ Aneka said, taking the glass. ‘Yes, he just mentioned some speeches. I’ve just been cursing him silently, but in practice it just means I have less time to worry over it.’

Something like an electronic version of a spoon being struck against a glass drew everyone’s attention up to a small podium which had been erected in a corner of the room. Ajax was standing up on it, waiting for the sound to die away before speaking. There was no microphone Aneka could see, but his voice was still amplified before it was broadcast out to his audience.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, as you will all have heard by now, one of the University of New Earth’s archaeological expeditions out into the old Human territories made a discovery which surprised everyone concerned. The Jenlay home world was lost a thousand years ago at the end of the Xinti War, as much else was lost. When we found this world, we named it “New Earth” in memory of the world we once lived on, but we never thought we would ever have a piece of that world with us again.’

He paused, looking out across the crowd to check where Aneka was. Knowing what was coming, she started forward. ‘A woman from our past was discovered in stasis aboard a Xinti science vessel, derelict in space since before the War. Tonight I have the exceptional privilege of introducing you all to Miss Aneka Jansen, native of Old Earth.’

He had timed his introduction well; Aneka stepped up onto the podium beside him just as he finished, enveloped by the sound of the applause. He smiled at her and shook her hand, and then backed off the stage to let the audience get a good look at her. She spotted various cameras looking her way; certain specific members of the media had been invited to attend. Aneka swallowed hard and fixed her face into a smile.

‘I don’t know whether you still use this phrase, but… “Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking,” thank you for that welcome. I really am unaccustomed to public speaking. Back home I was a soldier and I didn’t have to make speeches, I just had to get on and do. That’s pretty much what I want to do now I’m here. I spent over a thousand years asleep and now I’d like to get on with my new life here on New Earth.’ She raised her glass, which seemed to surprise everyone. ‘A toast. To the future, it seems like a nice place.’ There was some laughter and a chattering of replies from various people around the room. Aneka tilted her head. ‘You guys don’t have toasts anymore? Okay, Old Earth custom we’re bringing back for the occasion. Really easy. I call the toast, you guys repeat it, and we all drink. It’s a little like your celebration of First Day, but easier to remember. Ready? To the future!’ This time she got a proper response out of the audience and she saw people lifting glasses. So far so good.

‘Miss Jansen,’ someone at the front called out, ‘everything must seem very different for you after coming out of stasis. How are you adapting?’ Aneka’s hearing localised the sound and she tracked it to target: an attractive man in a black mesh shirt who reeked of reporter. Aneka’s gaze flicked to the Dean, getting an encouraging smile in return. Bastard wants me to field questions too…

‘Honestly, there’s not that much difference. You have great advances in technology, you live on a different world, and have aliens for next-door neighbours, but you’re still fundamentally Human, if you’ll forgive the old term. Since I’ve been here I’ve seen compassion, love, trust, and also hatred, prejudice, and distrust. You have terrorists and criminals just as we did. I’ve had to adjust to the technology and the sex life, that’s about it.’

‘Surely,’ another male voice said from off to Aneka’s right, ‘you find the rather decadent nature of our society something of a let-down?’ Aneka had done a little research since talking to Gillian; this man was Charles Hunter, one of the few men in the room with a powerful-looking body and an opaque shirt. ‘Back in the old times, people were harder working, more…’

‘Well, some had to work harder, and others didn’t,’ Aneka interrupted. She could see him starting up on a full diatribe and wanted to head it off. ‘I don’t see that as changing any either. I’ve just come back with the crew of the Garnet Hyde from a trip out beyond the Federal Rim. That was pretty hard work and I didn’t notice anyone shirking their duties. You have more leisure time than we did, on average, but the average person back on Old Earth didn’t want to have to work. Now your lives are far longer and you can probably get to do what you want with your life. Every man and woman back home would wish to be in that position.’ She noticed Hunter’s eyes narrowing; he did not like that reply, but any rejoinder would have to wait since another reporter was bucking to have a question answered.

‘I understand that you’re helping Doctor Gilroy to correct some of our misconceptions of Old Earth,’ the woman, dressed in what appeared to be silver cobwebs, said. ‘Can you give us an example of something we’ve had wrong all these years?’

Aneka grinned. ‘Elvis. He was called “The King,” but he never was one.’ There was a rumble of laughter. ‘I think the thing you have most wrong is the generalisations. You’ve lost most of the details so you have tended to believe that the details you have left applied to everyone and everywhere. So, you’ve heard of “King Elvis” and where there’s a king there must be monarchy. So we lived in a monarchy. Actually, there were very few true monarchies left by my time. The most powerful country was a representative democracy, the most populous one was communist. I came from a country called England and our head of state was a queen, but she was essentially a figurehead and the country was ruled as a representative government. But if you want to know more about that kind of thing you need to talk to Doctor Gilroy.’

‘And I think that’s all we have time for now,’ Ajax said, smoothly stepping in beside Aneka to stop the questions. ‘Miss Jansen will be here for a while so that you can talk to her. Just remember, she is a trained soldier so let’s not get her annoyed. We’re here to welcome her to her new world.’

Uh-huh, that’s so going to work…

Aneka headed off from the podium to the sound of hands clapping enthusiastically together. More hands patted her on the shoulders and arms as she filtered through the crowd toward Gillian and Ella. The hands did not stop at her arms, however, and she was starting to feel grumpy about the number of hands sliding over her behind when the path in front of her suddenly parted and she found herself looking at her first ever Herosian.

Ashipha D’Jarnis was not especially tall, but very powerfully built. His body was all smooth muscle hidden beneath dull, brown, scaly, more or less snake-like skin with various bony protrusions. His belly was a paler colour than the rest of him. He had slightly elongated feet and was balanced on his toes. His face was humanoid, with thick lips, slightly darker than the scales on his face, and an elongated jawline, his nose flattened and barely more than a couple of holes below his eyes, which where red, but did not have slit pupils. They faced forward, predator’s eyes. His ears were narrow and pointed, angled back from the sides of his ridged skull. Just like many Earth lizards, he had a forked tongue which flicked out a few times as he looked at Aneka, tasting the air for scents. He was dressed in traditional Herosian garb, a black sarong-like skirt with a silver belt, and a pair of metal bands around his thick biceps, silver with gold trim. It was his hands which caught Aneka’s attention, however; they were powerful with thick fingers ending in long talons.

‘Miss Jansen,’ the lizard-man said, ‘your discovery has caused much concern among my people.’ He did not hiss or lisp as he spoke. Aneka was a little disappointed. ‘Discovered aboard a Xinti vessel which we have been refused access to. We do not know how the Xinti might have influenced you, what you still might do under their direction.’ His head did weave and bob slightly as he spoke, his tongue darting out. She figured he was trying to determine whether he made her nervous.

‘Ambassador D’Jarnis, I believe,’ Aneka replied since the man had not been polite enough to give his name.

‘Indeed.’ He was not exactly easy to read, but she got the impression he would have preferred that she did not know his name.

‘As I understand it, you don’t “want access” to the ship I was on, or me, you want possession. The authorities here seem quite happy that I am no danger to anyone and the Xinti were unable to complete the brainwashing they had planned for me. The ship has been dead for eleven centuries, along with its crew, so it is no danger to anyone either.’

D’Jarnis’ tongue flicked rapidly. ‘We cannot be sure of your loyalties without proper testing. If a Xinti were here in place of myself, would you slay him or obey him?’

‘Neither,’ Aneka replied and she leaned forward, placing her lips close to one of the man’s ears. ‘I’ve had a lot of testing, physical and mental. In simulation I shot the first Xinti I recognised, but I now regret that. It was far too quick. I was trained in various ways of making your last hours very painful, Ambassador. Don’t think I wouldn’t be willing to kill, slowly.’ Straightening up, she stepped around the Herosian and continued on to Gillian and Ella.

‘Your first real alien,’ Ella said. ‘What did you think?’

‘About as much fun as a poke in the eye. Do the armbands mean anything?’

Ella bit back a giggle. Gillian’s smirk spoke volumes. ‘The silver indicates that he’s unmated. The gold trim indicates he has rank. You should meet Adjaxis,’ the doctor said, ‘he’s a bit boring, but he’s quite pleasant. You handled Hunter’s question quite well.’

‘Thanks. I must admit, it’s a little weird how people always seem to romanticise the past. Nothing new. People were romanticising the sixties by the time we got to the nineties.’

‘The “sixties?”’ Ella asked.

‘The nineteen-sixties. Supposedly one thousand and sixty years since the birth of Christ. It was twenty-eleven when I was kidnapped.’

Gillian sighed. ‘Over two thousand years of history we have next to no idea about. It’s depressing.’

Aneka patted her shoulder. ‘Have another drink. Enough alcohol and you’ll forget all about it.’

~~~

Charles Hunter was a good-looking man, but that was nothing special. He seemed rather more conservative than the rest of the Jenlay at the gathering, less inclined to flirt, dressed in clothes which did not show off his body, despite the fact that he seemed to have a firmly muscled frame under his suit.

His partner was another matter. As tall as Aneka, and possessing a fit, toned body with wide hips and a large chest, Andromeda Parry was dressed in a fitted micro-dress in a silver-blue mesh fabric which left little to the imagination. Her long, blonde hair was tied into a plait which ran down her back to her waist. She had the look of a professional soldier. Steely blue eyes watched everyone who got within a few metres of Hunter.

Aneka had been carefully avoiding them for over an hour and taking her time to examine them. She had come to the conclusion that there was something not right about Parry, but nothing she could put her finger on. Hunter was simply a political animal who had never been selected for politics. She knew she could not avoid them entirely, and eventually she ran into them.

‘Miss Jansen,’ Hunter said, his smile of welcome not coming near his eyes, ‘such a pleasure to meet a genuine Human.’

‘There are plenty of genuine Humans around, Mister Hunter,’ Aneka replied. ‘Even if they call themselves something else.’

His smile became indulgent. ‘You’re from a time before genetic manipulation, when Humans were really Human…’

‘Would you mind if I asked how old you are, Mister Hunter?’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Eighty-six.’

‘And looking so good on it. In my day, an eighty-six-year-old was planning their funeral. A “genuine Human” would live a quarter as long as you will. Assuming some disease you’re basically immune to didn’t get them first. I doubt you’d want to go back to that.’

‘Simply unlocking the potential of the genome,’ Hunter replied dismissively. ‘Humans have come a long way, I agree, but now we are being held back.’

‘Really? I understood the Jenlay represented the largest portion of the Federation.’

‘We do, but we sit in council with paranoid lizards and an ancient race so wrapped up in their own survival that they refuse to progress. Humans need to strike out, get back some of the pioneering spirit of your time when we took the newly discovered warp drives and went out to the stars.’

‘A little after my time, but okay. Except that we got those warp drives from an alien race, didn’t we? Maybe we need more cooperation, not less.’

He had been expecting her to be more receptive to his ideas; she could see it in the way his jaw hardened and his eyes flashed. Hunter had a temper, but he also had Parry there to keep it in check. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder and his face calmed. ‘You’ve barely lived in this century. I’m quite sure you’ll change your mind once you’ve been here for a while. We’ll talk again.’

Aneka walked away hoping really hard that he was wrong and they would not. Mostly she had been wandering around saying hello to people and fielding the odd question, almost universally about how she was coping with her new environment. It seemed like no one really knew how to talk to her unless they had an agenda. She had been billed as the woman from the past, and she was not wearing animal furs and speaking in grunts. Expectations had not been met and no one knew what to do with her. Picking up a glass of wine from one of the tables, she smiled at a couple who were watching her as though she might suddenly revert to walking on her knuckles, and turned to find her vision filled with blue sparkles.

Adjaxis, the Torem Ambassador to New Earth, was tall the way Abraham Wallace was. She came up to the Torem’s shoulder, barely. Torem came from a low-gravity world, originally, and followed the tall, slim model of body design. They took it somewhat to extremes with extended fingers which Aneka reckoned could have wrapped comfortably around her skull. Adjaxis’ face was relatively featureless, small, but with slightly enlarged, entirely black eyes. He was wearing a thick, blue-and-white bodysuit made of iridescent fabric. Even his head was encased in it with only his face showing.

‘My apologies, Miss Jansen,’ he said, stepping back. He had a soft, pleasant voice, deeper than Aneka expected. ‘Torem spend much of their time on spaceships and habitats. We forget Jenlay concepts of personal space at times.’

Aneka looked up and gave him a smile. ‘It’s more a question of neck strain, sir.’

The ambassador made a guttural noise which Aneka took to be laughter. ‘But one of the results of coming from a species born in low gravity. The other is that I find moving painful without this suit. I won’t ask how you’re settling in, you must be utterly tired of that question.’

‘I’m running out of ways to say “fine” in more than one word.’

‘Quite. I am interested, however. What do you think of this new world you find yourself in?’

Aneka frowned, considering her answer. ‘When I was… taken by the Xinti, we had global warming, various states building nuclear weapons, wars, developing biotechnology that could have created lethal viruses. I was hoping I’d be dead before we wiped ourselves out. Now look at us…’ She waved her hand at the people in the Grand Hall. ‘Mankind, out among the stars. It’s different, but we haven’t evolved into something I don’t recognise. Jenlay are brighter, live longer. They’ve conquered disease, and they’re basically at peace. And I’m alive to see it. It’s better than I could have hoped for.’ She grinned. ‘Of course, my ancestors seem to have become mildly sex-obsessed peacocks, but I can learn to live with that.’

He gave her a quizzical look. ‘I’m not exactly sure what a peacock is.’

‘It was a large, flightless bird. The males had huge, multicoloured tails which they showed off to the females as a big fan.’

‘Ah, I believe I take your meaning.’

A voice came from behind the Torem. ‘Ambassador, Ambassador Adjaxis…’

Adjaxis closed his eyes and his head dropped slightly; it was a rather human gesture of resignation. ‘Sadly,’ he said quietly, ‘some of your fellows can try the patience.’

A man in a long, white robe appeared beside them. Aneka had never seen a modern Jenlay male who looked so effeminate. He was good-looking enough, but shorter than was typical and young-looking to the point of cute. He had blonde hair, cut short, and sparkling blue eyes, and he carried himself with the kind of posture you saw on camp comedians in the eighties. He even had heart-shaped, pouting lips. ‘Ambassador,’ the man said, ‘we were interrupted…’

‘Mister Smart,’ Adjaxis said, ‘have you met Miss Jansen yet? Miss Jansen, this is Wallander Smart the leader of the Children of the Universe.’

Smart gave Aneka a smile; he was so not interested in her it was almost refreshing. ‘Good evening, Miss Jansen. I hope you’re settling in well.’

‘Quite well, thank you. I understand the Children of the Universe is a Jenlay adaptation of Torem beliefs?’ She was keeping him focussed on her; Adjaxis looked immensely relieved.

‘Yes. The basic tenets of the faith are that all life in the universe comes together in Vashma, the Universal Mind. When the first life began, so did Vashma. It is our duty to live as Vashma wishes us to live, treating all living things with respect, ensuring that living things progress and evolve. Through adherence to our faith we will learn our purpose, come to know Vashma and The Plan.’

‘The latter part,’ Adjaxis said, ‘is where we diverge. Torem are generally comfortable with knowing that everything is connected, everyone is part of the Mind. By living we serve Vashma. We see no reason to follow a specific, ritual adherence, or to proselytise our beliefs. Obviously, if asked, we explain.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Human religion has always been a search for purpose, some greater meaning to the world. Even in my time. Of course, in my time and before it, religion was an excuse for conflict, prejudice, persecution.’

‘You’re not religious yourself, then?’

Aneka shook her head. ‘I believe in living my life the best I can. I’m… I was a soldier. I’ve killed people because I was told to, or to save other lives. I don’t think I’ve ever killed an innocent person, but I can’t be absolutely sure. One of the reasons I left the Army and got into private security work was that I could pick my own missions. I tried to stick to rescue work.’

‘A worthy mission,’ Adjaxis said, ‘and something there is still need of. I understand you were on Harriamon when the spaceport was attacked and hostages taken.’

‘Huh, yeah. We got stuck on the planet until someone went in and neutralised the terrorists.’

‘Someone, yes. If you’ll both excuse me, I see Senator Ollander over there and I really must talk to her.’ The tall man turned and walked away toward a tall, attractive woman in a white, translucent gown a little like Greek robes.

‘Nice meeting you, Mister Smart,’ Aneka said, and she turned away herself, heading for Gillian and Ella. There was no way she was going to keep chatting to Smart either.

Yorkbridge North Beach, 11.6.524 FSC.

The beach which ran up from Mid-town and the monorail line was, Aneka had to admit, a good place to run, or to sunbathe. Katelyn was alongside her, barefoot, but dressed in relatively modest running gear. They had left Ella a few kilometres back, lying on a towel in the sun.

They were headed north. On their left, the city was masked by high dunes. Aneka could almost have believed they were somewhere isolated, except that they kept coming across people who did not look like they would travel miles for a beach. There were couples and families, out for a day at the beach just as Aneka would have expected to see in her time. More or less anyway: the level of intimacy between some of the couples was a little more than she would have expected at home.

The families were interesting. Generally there was only one child, and where there were two there usually appeared to be several years between them. When you had voluntary control of your reproduction and a long lifespan, you tended to space your kids out, she guessed. Here on New Earth, those children seemed terribly well behaved too. She did see some of the older ones looking very closely at the two fit women running past, but then teenagers probably had not changed that much in a thousand years.

Aneka had set a fair pace, even if she was running barefoot in a string bikini. Katelyn had instructions that she was to call a halt when she needed to rest, but Aneka knew her running partner would collapse before she did. Katelyn was a competitive woman: she wanted to show that she could keep up, no matter what. Aneka felt a little sorry for her since keeping up with a synthetic body was unfair, but she had said she wanted to improve her stamina.

They were getting close to the point where Aneka was going to turn them around anyway when she saw the two men atop one of the dunes. She saw the rifles they were aiming and started to call out, but it was all a little too late. Katelyn let out a shriek and fell, sprawling in the sand. Almost at the same instant, Aneka’s ears started ringing and her vision actually blurred as some sort of sonic blast hit her in the head. Katelyn was clutching her leg, but there was no blood; they were using non-lethal weapons. A robbery? No, that was stupid, what were they going to steal? A capture mission?

Range: 20 metres. Two targets. Available weaponry: integral. The messages flickered past in-vision as Aneka started across the sand. Time to target: 4 seconds. They would be able to get more shots off, her left hand raised, her fist clenching as the force shield sprang into existence. She heard the buzz of the sonic beams as they ripped past, none impacting her shield, and hoped Katelyn was too busy with her leg to notice. The gunmen were panicking, not taking proper aim, and their targeting was off because of it. Time to target: 2 seconds. A pulse slammed into her shield, not close enough to hit home, but enough to make her react. She reached toward the shooter, fingers spread. The aiming was less than perfect, but the little force weapon was point-and-click and the gunmen were not expecting anything ranged to be thrown at them. Even from here she heard the ‘oof!’ as the presser pulse hit its target’s chest, but even she was surprised as he was slammed back by the force of it, tumbling out of sight behind the dune.

A last pulse of sound battered her shield before she rammed it into the second man, pushing the barrel of his rifle aside. She had a feeling that it hurt her more than him, but it closed the distance and got her inside of the effective range of his weapon. Dropping the shield, she brought her knee up, slamming it into his stomach and heard the grunt as the air left his lungs. Aneka felt another sting as his friend fired again, clipping her left shoulder, and stepped around her current victim as he made a wild attempt to hit her with the barrel of his rifle. Her hand snapped into the side of his neck and he fell face first into the scrubby grass at the top of the dune.

Another blast of sound hit Aneka in the chest and she turned, glaring at the second gunman. He was still prone after the shock she had given him, and her foot lashed out as he took aim once more. There was a dull ache in Aneka’s chest and she was feeling pissed off. Folding her hand into a fist, she dropped to one knee and slammed her hand down like a hammer onto the man’s chest. Once, twice, and the man stopped moving. She was not sure, but she thought she had heard ribs breaking.

‘I called the Peacekeepers,’ Katelyn said as Aneka got back down the dune to where she was lying. ‘They’ll be here… well, shouldn’t be long.’

‘Are you okay?’

‘Bloody stunners. My leg’s paralysed.’ She gave her left leg a slap. ‘It’s like when you sit on your foot for too long, but more long-lasting. I’ll be fine. What about them?’

‘They’ll be fine, when they wake up.’

Katelyn looked at her, frowning. ‘I don’t know how you managed that, but it was amazing.’

Aneka shrugged. ‘Ex-soldier. I’m used to being hit with concussion grenades.’

Anything Katelyn might have said in reply was cut off by the roar of turbofan engines as a Peacekeeper vertol aircraft swung around and landed on the beach.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

The Peacekeeper station in Mid-town was clean to the point of sterile and the air conditioning was on too high, and Aneka was sitting in an interview room in a bikini. Score one for a body designed to operate in sub-zero temperatures, but she was getting fed up with talking to people who clearly were more used to dealing with traffic problems, crashes, and the occasional fire. They just did not get the kind of crime that provided experience with violence, and they had no idea what to do with Aneka and her attackers. She had put both of them in hospital.

There was the amusement of watching people walking in and out of the observation room. It was hidden behind a panel like the mirrors you saw in TV programmes, except that this appeared to be a solid wall. It functioned well as a barrier to normal light, but it transmitted infrared just fine. Aneka was sitting facing it on a chromed metal seat so there was nothing to do but watch the comings and goings, which was why she noticed when the room emptied. Frowning, she looked up in time to see the lights on the four cameras go out. Somehow it was not much of a surprise when the door opened and Winter walked in.

‘Can’t stay out of trouble, Miss Jansen?’ the woman said as she took the seat opposite her. She was dressed in a Peacekeeper uniform, the same flak jacket and slacks arrangement as the men had been wearing on Harriamon.

‘You were the one who dropped me into the spaceport business.’

‘True. You’re sure no one there would have been able to identify you?’

‘I had a mask on the entire time.’ Aneka’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why?’

‘The men who attacked you have been identified. They were Knights of the Void, the same group who staged the Harriamon spaceport incident.’

‘I left one of them alive. Did you get anything from him?’

Winter’s nose wrinkled. ‘The Knights operate in cells of from three to about twenty. Communication is by anonymous file drop. The entire cell was involved in the attack on Harriamon. We got a couple of weapon caches and the location of their file drop server, but no useful information. Forensic analysis of the server gave no indication that they knew about you. We got a deleted file with the orders to attack the spaceport, but nothing to identify its origin.’

Aneka shrugged slightly. ‘Intelligence analysis isn’t really part of my skill set, but that sounds like a whole lot of nothing, and a well-organised partisan movement.’

‘We prefer to call them terrorists.’

‘Terrorist, partisan, freedom fighter. All depends on whose side you’re viewing it from. Why would they be trying to kidnap me?’

Folding her arms under her breasts, Winter said, ‘An interesting question, and one I have no answer for. We have to consider the possibility that they will try again, however.’

‘Fanaticism isn’t usually so quick to give up, no. What do you want from me?’

Winter smiled. ‘What makes you think I want something?’

‘You could have called, or just had the Peacekeepers release me. You came down here to talk to me.’ Aneka frowned. ‘You really get around.’

‘You’ll find that, even considering my image as a secretive spy master, I’m very hands-on when I feel it’s warranted.’ She frowned thoughtfully. ‘Mistress. Spy mistress. Anyway, I simply want you to do what you’re likely to have to do anyway. Find out why they want you. Take care of the situation or call me in if necessary.’

Aneka nodded. If these Knights were going to keep coming after her she was going to need to deal with it. ‘All right, but I’m going to need my gun back.’

‘I’ll have the paperwork through to authorise you to use it by the morning.’

‘And I want those Xinti records sent back to Gillian.’

‘Not exactly related…’

‘No, but you can make it happen and it’s taking too long. We got that stuff. Gillian should be the one analysing it.’

The spy mistress’ lips twitched. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

‘All right, I’m in.’ Aneka sighed. ‘Plus ça change…’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘It’s French. “The more things change.”’

‘The more they stay the same?’

‘Yeah. I thought I’d given up special ops works.’

‘You have, Miss Jansen. But it doesn’t want you to.’

Part Six: Humanity

Yorkbridge Mid-town, New Earth, 11.6.524 FSC.

Ella almost managed to bounce across the entire lounge to wrap Aneka in a hug when she walked in. Behind her Dillon and Katelyn got to their feet, but stayed where they were while Aneka walked toward them with Ella clinging on, legs wrapped around Aneka’s hips.

‘I told them we were attacked,’ Katelyn said. ‘They released me as soon as Dillon and Ella came to pick me up.’

‘One of their investigators wanted to talk to me,’ Aneka replied. ‘How’s your leg?’

‘Fine. Told you it would be.’

Dillon clapped his big hand on Aneka’s shoulder. ‘Thanks. I don’t know what those guys wanted, but you saved my Kat. Anything you need…’

Aneka grinned at him. ‘Could you prise Ella off before she breaks my ribs?’ Laughing, the big man grabbed Ella’s sides and pulled. ‘The cops don’t know for sure why we were attacked, but they suspect that they wanted a couple of playthings for the afternoon.’ It was a better cover story than robbery, but Aneka still did not like lying to them.

Ella finally gave up and let go, allowing Dillon to set her down on a couch. ‘You’re okay, right?’

Aneka settled beside her. ‘An afternoon in a Peacekeeper station dressed in a bikini is not how I want to spend my time, but yeah.’ She grinned. ‘Ex-soldier, remember?’

‘Shaking off stunner hits,’ Dillon said, sitting opposite, ‘that’s tough.’

‘One stunner hit,’ Aneka lied. ‘They weren’t professionals. Once I was charging at them their aim went right off. Used to work on conscript soldiers in Iraq too. Anyway, what did I have to lose? If they took me down it wasn’t going to go well and Kat was out in the open.’

‘Well, whatever happened,’ Katelyn said, ‘I’m glad you were there. If I’m going to be someone’s “plaything” I’d rather it was you three.’

Ella giggled. ‘I’ll go get the handcuffs.’

University of New Earth, 12.6.524 FSC.

‘It arrived by courier early this morning,’ Gillian said. She was looking at a small crate which was currently occupying an area of floor in her office. ‘It’s encoded for your access.’

Aneka looked down at the box. Ella looked down at it too. It had a button above the catch and no markings on it at all. Aneka reached for the button, pressing it, and Al informed her of an identity check. Apparently the case was encoded for her since the locks disengaged immediately and the lid lifted slowly on small hydraulic actuators.

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka said, ‘Winter came through.’ Reaching into the box, she took out the case with her gun in it, turning to put it on Gillian’s desk. ‘You may want to look at the other thing in there.’

There was a squeal from Ella and Gillian said, ‘Well, I’ll be a Herosian’s lovechild.’

Aneka smiled and opened her gun case. The big pistol was sitting there in its nanofoam padding. She turned back toward the box, only to have Ella hand her the power cell box. ‘Thank you,’ Aneka said, ‘you always know what to give me.’

Ella giggled. ‘Dillon seemed to know what to give you too.’

Aneka rolled her eyes, locked a power cell into her pistol and watched as the tactical display appeared. ‘Thirty-four charges. She even charged them up for me.’

Gillian was busy connecting the Xinti data archive to her office computer. ‘She’s a very thoughtful woman, for a spy master.’

‘Mistress,’ Aneka corrected. ‘She seemed to want it clear that she’s a spy mistress.’

‘Interesting,’ Ella commented. ‘Psychologically that is. Asserting both authority and femininity.’

‘Everything’s always sex with psychologists,’ Aneka replied.

‘I didn’t mention sex, though maybe Winter’s interest in you isn’t entirely professional. Anyway, you’re armed and we have years’ worth of Xinti historical data to go through.’

‘Not the history of the start of the War, however,’ Gillian said. ‘As you suggested, that has been removed.’

‘Well, we still have it if we need it,’ Aneka replied. ‘Right now what I need is a bag I can carry this gun in unobtrusively.’

Ella looked at the weapon. ‘The student shop in the atrium stocks cloth bags that should fit it.’

‘Okay, I’ll go down and buy something at lunchtime.’ Aneka looked up at Gillian. ‘Want to continue the history lessons, or are you too busy with your new toy?’

Gillian sat down at her desk, leaned back, and crossed her legs. ‘I’ve started a categorisation algorithm running on the data store. Nothing much to do until that’s completed. Sit down and tell me more about your political systems.’

Aneka sighed and pulled a chair over. ‘Okay, where had we got to? I’d pretty much done the democracies, right?’

~~~

‘Everyone’s looking at me,’ Aneka muttered under her breath.

‘You’re famous,’ Ella replied. ‘Especially here.’

‘I don’t want to be famous.’ Aneka picked up a fabric bag with the University’s globe-shaped logo on it. It was not actually a cloth bag; the tag on it said it was made of woven bioplastic threads, was self-cleaning, and could carry loads up to fifty kilos. What a student wanted with a bag which could carry that much, or how you could fit something that big in it, Aneka was not sure.

‘Well, you are. Suck it up, soldier.’ Aneka gave her a look. ‘What? Monkey says his father says things like that all the time.’

‘Huh.’ Aneka stopped and looked down at a shelf. The shop seemed to have everything you could possibly want as a student. Apparently that included small toolkits. She picked up a small box and started for the counter.

‘What do you want that for?’ Ella asked.

‘It’s got a Swiss army knife in it. I really miss my Swiss army knife.’

‘Why does it have to be Swiss?’

‘It’s just a name for a kind of multi-bladed knife. I think they were made for the Swiss Army, originally, but they’re just useful. I doubt this was made by a Swiss company, given that Switzerland doesn’t actually exist anymore.’

‘Yeah, it does,’ Ella replied. ‘That’s where they make those tools, Switzerland. It’s a planet in the Alpina system. Not very warm, lots of mountains. Aside from the knife factory, and some mining and refining, it’s mostly a giant ski resort.’

‘Huh. I find that unaccountably amusing.’ The cute blonde on the far side of the counter took her purchases and ran them over the RFID scanner. Aneka gave her a smile as the total came up on the counter’s built-in display. Aneka tapped an ‘accept charge’ button beside the figure.

‘You’ll be okay using your bag… as a bag?’ the blonde said, her brow wrinkling at the lame line.

‘Sure.’

Making a show of putting the little box of tools into the bag, the girl handed the resulting bundle back across the counter. ‘Thank you for shopping with us. It’s, uh, really amazing to meet you.’

Aneka held back the grimace she wanted to show, and instead requested the girl’s name from her ident-chip. She got a name and a contact identifier. ‘Thank you, Melanie,’ she said, taking the bag and starting for the door.

‘She gave you her contact ID didn’t she?’ Ella said once they were outside the door.

‘Yes, she did.’

‘She was cute. You should call her.’

‘You don’t think I’ve got enough trouble with you?’

‘I think you should go out with her. Alone, I mean. Without me.’

‘Why? Trying to get rid of me already?’

‘Because,’ Ella replied, not rising to the jibe, ‘she doesn’t know you, you don’t know her, and I won’t be there to help. It’ll be good practice, and she’s obviously interested so there’s no need to worry over that.’

‘A training exercise?’

‘Basically, yes.’

They were almost at the Social Sciences building by then and Aneka did not want to discuss the matter with Gillian present; it would take hours. ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said.

Ella waited for a few seconds until they were in the elevator up to Gillian’s floor before saying, ‘I’m a psychologist, you know? I can tell when I’m being fobbed off. You’ll think about it all right.’

Aneka sagged against the lift wall with a sigh. Sometimes having a trained psychologist as a girlfriend sucked.

~~~

‘You needed to see me, Cassandra?’ The android looked up from her console as Aneka walked in, nodded, and slipped out from behind her desk, one arm raised slightly, indicating some seating in a corner of the room, and Aneka moved over, sitting down.

Cassandra took the seat opposite, crossing her long legs and placing her crossed wrists on one knee. Her back, Aneka noticed, was as straight as it could get: a deportment school instructor could not have done better. ‘Something came up in the analysis of your structure which Doctor Wallace thought I should discuss with you.’

Aneka frowned. ‘Doctor Wallace found it, but he thought you should discuss it with me?’

‘Yes. Doctor Wallace is a skilled physicist, an expert in many fields, but he defers to me in more delicate matters.’

‘I… don’t understand. Is there something wrong with me?’

‘No.’ Cassandra might have been good at delicacy, but she was fairly firm on not beating around the bush, it seemed. ‘During the analysis, certain chemical nanofactories were found in your skin. It took some time to determine what the function of these sites is. The other reason I am having this conversation is that I can ask Al about them at the same time. As Doctor Wallace theorised, these factories produce artificial pheromones.’

There was more frowning. ‘Like… insects use to communicate?’

‘Yes. Many organisms use messenger chemicals in this way, even Jenlay. You are able to produce chemicals which influence those around you, increasing trust in you, asserting your dominance, or reducing people’s inhibitions.’

Aneka looked across at Cassandra, feeling suddenly cold. ‘You’re serious? I can make people trust me? I can… Ella could have come on to me because… This is… horrific!’

The android raised a hand. ‘Al has provided me with records of the activation of these… glands. The only one which you have actually deployed is the, for want of a better term, sex pheromone, and that only while engaged in sex. Ella’s attraction to you is entirely natural. Your body emitted chemicals which likely made the experience more intense, but you did not cause it to happen that way.’

The coldness turned to anger almost immediately. ‘You didn’t mention this because?’ she snapped silently.

‘Because I was worried you would react in just the way you have,’ Al replied. ‘Insecurity over Ella’s feelings for you and the trust your friends have developed in you. I was unsure that you would believe my records of the use of the pheromone emitters.’

Aneka was silent for a second, though she imagined that Al could see her mind working anyway. ‘No more secrets. If you’re going to live in my head, you don’t keep secrets from me. Understand?’

‘Yes, Aneka. My apologies.’

‘Is there anything else about my body I should know?’

‘No, Aneka. Or if there is, I was not made aware of it either.’

‘Okay.’ Aloud she said, ‘Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Cassandra. Al… neglected to include that in our discussions of what I could do.’

The blonde android nodded. ‘You’re angry with him. I can understand that, but his assessment of your state of mind is almost certainly correct. You would have worried that you were unconsciously influencing the behaviour of your friends, particularly Mister Gibbons and Miss Patton. It would have shaken your growing confidence in your new situation.’

‘I know,’ Aneka replied. ‘That’s why I’m being reasonable about this. You’re right, I’m pissed off about it, but I’m also aware that he had good intentions and he was probably right. I’ll cool down and get over it.’

Cassandra smiled revealing very white, perfectly spaced teeth. ‘You show remarkable self-awareness and common sense for a Jenlay.’

‘Huh. Maybe it’s being scooped out of my brain and ladled into a synthetic shell. I think when I had hormones I’d have wanted to beat Al to a pulp.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 14.6.524 FSC.

Rollins’ Market was a four-storey structure three stops on the subway north of Ella’s apartment. When Aneka had said she would cook a traditional Old Earth meal for Gillian and Ella, Ella had suggested she go there. It had, according to her, the best fresh ingredients in the city. Gillian knew of people from the suburbs who would make the trip into the city to buy at the Market.

Aneka had to admit that it looked like she was right. The future, it seemed, was very particular about its food miles, even if they called it FTF, Food Transport Factor, and measured it in kilometres. Nothing at the Market had travelled more than about two hundred kilometres to get there, and the bulk of it had been grown at the edge of the city. The Market did not go in for the more exotic foodstuffs, brought in by spaceship from other worlds; fresh, local produce at reasonable prices, that was what the Market was famous for.

Despite this, Aneka was having difficulty. She was planning to make a Thai green curry. Back home in Aldershot, she could have got the ingredients at practically any supermarket. She had expected she would have to do some substitution, but figuring out what the substitutes should be was taking significantly longer than she had expected.

She was on the third storey, which housed a lot of smaller stalls selling various kinds of spices, when she spotted her tail. There were two of them, trying to look inconspicuous while they hunted for her. She figured they had lost her in the crowd and were trying to reacquire her. It was not like she was trying to hide; she was just wandering among the stalls dressed in a cropped, string-strapped top and one of the stupidly small skirts Ella had made her buy. When she spotted the man giving her a surreptitious look around the side of a stall, she was busy trying to find a suitable replacement for coriander at a very well-stocked shop where the proprietor seemed to know what she was talking about.

‘Try this,’ the woman said, handing over a star-shaped leaf from one of the many bundles she had behind the counter. ‘It’s Beliamon leaf. It has a lemon hint and it’s quite sharp.’

Aneka took the leaf and sniffed it, grinning at the spicy, lemon-like scent. She took a pinch of it between her teeth and let the flavour wash over her tongue. It was a little hotter than coriander, but it had a hint of orange to it and was not quite as soapy. ‘That should do perfectly. I’ll take…’ She cupped her hand in a vague gesture. ‘…a good handful. Now, lemongrass…’

The two stalkers were carrying. They were both wearing short jackets, not ideal for concealing a weapon, but good enough that what they were carrying could not be seen. Of course, they might have been undercover Peacekeepers, or even some of Winter’s people. It just seemed unlikely. Well, there was one way to find out, but it could wait until she was finished. And there was no way she was letting them spoil her evening.

~~~

‘Are you sure this is wise?’ Al asked as Aneka turned down a narrow alley between two tower blocks.

‘They aren’t going to use anything lethal on me,’ Aneka replied silently. ‘If they wanted me dead they could have used a laser rifle or something. These two are carrying handguns at best. I’m giving them a chance to try to grab me. If they do, then they’re bad guys.’ She slipped her hand into her bag, closing it around the grip of her gun. A thought switched the weapon to non-lethal mode.

‘If they don’t?’

‘I’ll lose them before I head over to Gillian’s place.’

‘You are not invulnerable, you know? You are heavily armoured, especially your skull, but there are weak points. Your skin is bulletproof, but it’s flexible armour…’

‘So sufficiently large blunt trauma could cause damage. Yes, but they’d need to know what I was for that and I don’t think they–’ She stopped as something stung her back: a burst of electrical discharge which danced across her bare skin and a warning regarding a charged particle attack flashed in-vision. She turned, dropping to one knee to make a smaller target, and brought her pistol up and around.

The two stalkers had the kind of look on their faces their compatriots with the sonic carbines had had: bemused astonishment. They were both carrying slim, nasty-looking pistols which Aneka figured were blasters set to stun. Range: 21 yards. Target immobile. She fired, the crack of the discharge barely louder than a silenced pistol, though it echoed in the narrow confines of the alley. One of the two men, probably the one who had fired, jerked violently and then collapsed backward onto the paving stones.

His friend fired back, the pulse of charged particles going well wide from the panicked aim. Aneka’s pistol swung toward him and he threw himself sideways just as she fired. He was not so lucky with her third shot and a second later he was lying on the ground beside his friend, twitching slightly.

Getting to her feet, Aneka walked over to the fallen men and checked their pockets. They had no identifying documents on them, not uncommon, but their transponders were not responding to requests either and they had nothing at all on them aside from the blasters and shoulder-holsters. She took the guns, taking each by the muzzle to slip into her bag, and then went back down the alley the way she had come. Maybe Winter could have their fingerprints checked, if they did that sort of thing these days.

‘We’re just leaving them there?’ Al asked.

‘I know what they look like and they’re disarmed. And I have cooking to do. If I get the cops involved I’ll be stuck in an interview room for hours. Again.’

‘You’re going straight there? Dressed like that?’

Aneka laughed as she turned onto the street, causing a couple of people to grin at her, even if they did not know what the joke was. ‘What are you? My mother?’

Tristar Township.

Aneka followed her navigation system out from the subway station, heading about a mile west to the low wall and fence, and the gatehouse which allowed you through and into Tristar Township. It was basically a gated community similar to the ones you could have found dotted around America in her time. There was a stiff-looking man in the gatehouse who gave her a look which suggested that maybe she should have changed clothes. When her identity interrogation pulse apparently indicated that she was allowed through, he looked almost disappointed.

‘You’re cleared through to Doctor Gilroy’s house. Straight in, second left, keep going to the end of the road.’

Aneka gave him a smile. ‘Thank you.’ Then she headed on through the slalom of pedestrian gates and carried on walking down the main road through the town.

There were a few shops along this road, interspersed with high walls with houses behind them, and she stopped off at one of them to buy a bottle of wine, noting the hike in prices, before carrying on to the second road on the left. Here the houses had open fronts, usually with large lawns. Few of the buildings had more than one storey, but they seemed quite large, probably at least three bedrooms. The walls, the visible ones anyway, were all painted over with cream-coloured material giving a stucco effect. The spectral image Aneka was getting suggested Plascrete rather than any form of plaster; the combination of ceramic and polymer was quite distinctive.

She saw almost no one as she walked down the road. There were no children about, though she spotted one girl sunbathing on the lawn, and she looked young. There was a hint of teenage ganglyness about her, and she was lying naked on a lounger in full sight of the street, which suggested a hint of teenage rebellion. The girl either did not see or ignored Aneka as she walked past. A man parking his car five doors down gave Aneka a look that was meant to be disdainful, but just managed to look hungry.

The road widened into a circular area, Aneka’s navigation system pointing her at the house right at the end as the guard had indicated. That was when Aneka spotted the only other person: one of Gillian’s neighbours was peeking around a curtain. She probably would not have noticed if the nosy neighbour’s heat signature had not given him away.

As she walked up to the door, Al flashed up a message indicating that he had responded to an identity check for her, and the door slid open on silent runners. Good-quality mechanics, it had not occurred to her that the door to Ella’s apartment gave a slight hiss when it opened. She carried on in and the door slid closed behind her.

‘Good afternoon, Miss Jansen.’ The voice was soft and female, and came from concealed speakers. ‘Doctor Gilroy has given you guest access to the house and instructed me to show you through to the kitchen.’ The room she was in was basically a hallway which seemed to run the length of the building from one side to another. Opposite Aneka, the plain, cream wall changed, displaying a moving arrow which pointed to the right.

Aneka smiled. ‘Thank you.’ She started off in the indicated direction. ‘Do you have a name?’

‘I am designated House Two-three-nine,’ the house answered. ‘You may call me House.’

Aneka passed a couple of doors on her left, but kept going, following the dancing arrow. ‘Pleased to meet you, House. You should get Gillian to give you a proper name. Mind you, “House” is better than “Computer,” I guess.’

‘I believe so, Miss Jansen.’

‘She’s non-volitional,’ Al commented. ‘She’d likely agree with you if you said “Dung” was a good name.’

Trying not to grin too much, Aneka walked through into a large, open lounge. Ahead of her was a sunken area with seating around it and what looked like a padded floor. The expanse of wall it encircled suggested an entertainment area. Part of it lit up to show a left-pointing arrow and, sure enough, Aneka turned to find a dining area at the back of the house next to a kitchen half as big as the lounge.

Aneka’s smile grew. ‘Oh… this is perfect. I’d cook more often with a kitchen like this.’

‘Thank you, Miss Jansen. It is nice to be appreciated.’

Aneka put her bag down on the large, granite surface which formed the centre of the kitchen. ‘My pleasure.’

~~~

‘This is… actually very nice,’ Gillian said.

‘You don’t have to sound quite so surprised,’ Aneka replied, grinning. If she had to say so herself, the curry had come out tasting more or less how she had wanted, and it was quite nice. ‘We didn’t manufacture our food out of dirt, y’know?’

‘What did you say it was again?’ Ella asked.

‘Thai green curry, more or less.’

‘More or less?’

‘Well… You don’t have chickens, so I used mycoprotein and I had to substitute for… well, pretty much all the herbs. You still have peppercorns and soy sauce, and something enough like sesame oil to be workable… And rice, you still have rice. But you’re eating almost an authentic, Old Earth meal.’

‘I like it,’ Ella said. ‘We don’t get much in the way of spicy food these days.’

‘Speak for yourself,’ Gillian replied. ‘I cook quite a lot of spicy food. I just didn’t know you liked it.’

Ella giggled around a mouthful of curry. ‘I didn’t either.’

‘First time for everything,’ Aneka said. ‘I should point out that this is only traditional English food in that we adopted anything we liked from all over the place. Curry we got from India.’

‘The British Empire,’ Gillian put in.

‘Yup. Responsible for the English obsession with curry, and the invention of gin and tonic. We screwed up an entire subcontinent, but we got food and drink out of it.’

‘I’d imagine we could do quite well on an Old Earth cookbook. If you could remember the recipes.’

‘I’d probably drive myself insane trying to replicate the flavours. How’s the Xinti archive coming along?’

‘Well. No recipes yet, but a lot of very interesting historical data. I discovered a database of Xinti colonies and bases which the computer is currently searching for places we don’t know about.’

‘If you find any?’

‘We see about mounting an expedition.’

‘Isn’t that kind of dangerous? I mean, aside from the possibility of booby traps, and robots, there’s the Herosians to consider.’

‘We won’t tell the Herosians,’ Ella replied.

‘That’s pretty much the plan,’ Gillian agreed. ‘As for the other stuff, that’s why we’ll have you, Bash, and Monkey along. With three facilitators we’ll probably be able to take a larger team. I think I can get the budget out of Barriman.’ She laughed. ‘I’ll sleep with him if it’ll get me the budget for that.’

‘Any word of those men who are after you?’ Ella asked. Aneka had had to tell her all about it; it was a warning if nothing else.

‘I left a couple of them unconscious in an alley before coming here. They’ve moved up to blasters set on stun.’

‘Trying a different way to incapacitate you,’ Gillian suggested.

‘Uh-huh. Electrical discharge, at least at that level, doesn’t work on me either. Al says I’m not invulnerable. I guess a big enough electric charge could disable me, but if they keep this up they’re wasting their time.’

‘You be careful,’ Ella told her, frowning. ‘Aside from anything else, I’ve just found curry and you’re the only person I know of who cooks it.’ The frown turned into a grin. ‘Is your hot tub working, Doc?’

‘The house turned it on when we arrived.’

‘Fridgy! We can finish the wine off there.’

Aneka gave her an innocent look. ‘But I didn’t bring a swimsuit.’

~~~

No one else was wearing anything either and the bubbling hot water did feel good. Aneka did not get aches anymore, but she could imagine them drifting away in the heat. Something was preying on her mind, however.

‘There’s something I want to bring up,’ she said after about thirty minutes of soaking and chatting.

‘That sounds serious,’ Ella replied. ‘Drink more wine.’

‘I don’t get drunk, remember? It is serious… and it’s not. Doctor Wallace found something in the scans he took of me. Some artificial glands. They produce… well, pheromones. Chemicals designed to change the behaviour of people around me. Apparently they can induce trust, enforce dominance, and… generate lust.’

Ella’s brow wrinkled for a second. ‘So?’

‘I’d imagine,’ Gillian said, ‘that Aneka is worried that she has used these pheromones on us. That your attraction to her is the result of them.’

‘I understand that,’ Ella replied, ‘but that’s so much, what do you call it, bullshit?’

‘You seem pretty sure,’ Aneka said.

‘I wanted you the first time I laid eyes on you.’ She looked to Gillian for confirmation.

‘It’s true,’ the doctor replied. ‘You know how transparent she is. I could see her drooling over the idea of taking you to bed when you were still in isolation. Have you actually activated these glands?’

‘Apparently,’ Aneka replied, glad she could not blush, ‘the sex pheromones are released when I have sex.’

‘I knew things got wild faster than usual!’ Ella exclaimed. She giggled. ‘Don’t worry about it. We haven’t even got near what I’m happy doing so you haven’t pushed me to anything extreme.’

‘Still,’ Gillian said, ‘I think we’ll keep this ability quiet. Not everyone will react to the possibility that they were influenced as well as Ella has.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Now I know about it I can control it, so I won’t be using it. So I guess I’m okay with people not knowing.’ Her eyes flicked to Ella, who was grinning. ‘What?’

‘I don’t mind you using the sex one. That could be great at parties.’

Gillian laughed. ‘I don’t think many people will mind you using that one.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 15.6.524 FSC.

It had been quite a long day. A pretty long night too. They had woken up mid-morning after spending half the night pleasuring each other in various ways, and Gillian had come into town with them to do some shopping. Aneka had managed to escape with just a new mini-dress that Ella had forced on her. She had to admit it was a nice dress: long-sleeved, tight-fitting, and composed of lace.

With the purchase-fest concluded, Gillian came back to Ella’s apartment with them for coffee. Aneka was lugging several of the bags because she had artificial muscles which did not mind the weight and did not tire as quickly. She did, however, make sure that her own bag with its hidden gun was ready on top. She was constantly looking around for signs of her stalkers, and she knew Ella had picked up on it. Her friend seemed to be a little worried but not nervous. Aneka was a professional and she knew what she was doing, and that had been transmitted as well.

It happened as Ella was reaching for the door entry panel to the apartment building. Part of the brickwork just above the panel exploded into dust, followed a fraction of a second later by a loud crack. ‘Inside!’ Aneka snapped as she dropped to one knee, pulling her gun from her bag. She was aware of Al activating the door control by remote and her two friends stumbling inside, but she was more concerned with the shooter. Al threw up a display indicating the target area the sound had come from and Aneka used the high-magnification display from her pistol to scan it.

Then she saw it. On a balcony attached to the side of another tower block a man was dismantling a long-barrelled sniper rifle of some sort. Weapon identification: electromagnetic acceleration rifle. Range: 500 metres. Warning: range exceeds maximum for full effect. It meant that there was some chance the antimatter pulse from her gun would degrade to ineffectiveness before it hit its target. She took her time, focussing on her target, letting her body relax into the shot, aiming for centre mass above the railing, and then squeezed off three rounds. Through the viewfinder of her gun she watched as the man’s chest was ripped open. He looked shocked for a fraction of a second as the first bolt hit him, and his rifle slipped from his fingers. Then the light went out of his eyes and he staggered back against the wall of the building, slipping down to the floor and leaving a bloody smear in his wake.

‘Al, call the Peacekeepers and get a message through to that address Winter gave us,’ Aneka said.

‘The Peacekeepers aren’t going to be pleased.’

‘I know. Just do it before someone else calls them.’ Aneka pushed her pistol back into her bag, grabbed everything else, and hurried inside.

‘Are you okay?!’ Ella squeaked from the staircase.

‘Me, I’m fine. The sniper is a bloody smear on a wall.’ She started for the stairs. ‘I’ll dump this stuff and then come back to wait for the cops. Put the coffee on. I’ve never met a policeman who didn’t appreciate a cup of coffee.’

~~~

Peace Officer Attica Barlow did, indeed, appreciate the coffee. She did not seem to be appreciating having to sit around Ella’s apartment making sure that Aneka went nowhere while they waited for an investigator to arrive. Her presence did give Aneka a chance to examine a Peacekeeper up close. She did not expect to have to go up against one of them, but the information was always worth having.

Barlow was not especially tall, but her body was all lean muscle. She was quite happy to talk about her training, which included armed and unarmed combat. Not that she was usually unarmed; she carried an electro-shock stun baton on her left thigh, and an electro-laser beam pistol on her right hip, and she was trained with both. Her training did not include investigating crimes, and also did not seem to cover much more than handling drunks, traffic accidents, fires, and similar minor emergencies. Barlow was actually unusual in that she had done a terrorism awareness course a couple of years earlier, but it was not much use since they just did not get terrorists on New Earth. Still, she was interested as well as a little frustrated at not being able to look into it further.

‘Someone shot at you with a hypervelocity railgun, tried to kill you, and you don’t know who or why?’

‘That’s a sniper weapon, right?’ Aneka replied with a question.

‘Old style, yes. Modern military snipers use lasers.’

‘So, he didn’t try to kill me.’

Ella looked up at that. ‘He didn’t?’

‘If he was trying to kill me, he’d have shot me in the back, or the head. He wasn’t trying to kill any of us, he was trying to scare us. Scare me.’

‘It doesn’t appear to have worked,’ Barlow commented.

‘I sent them a message back.’

‘Thank you, Officer Barlow, that will be all.’ The voice came from the apartment’s doorway. Aneka had heard the slight hiss from the actuators and knew it was coming. Everyone else jumped. Winter was dressed in a Peacekeeper uniform again. She walked into the room every bit the confident detective. Ella and Gillian glanced at Aneka and she narrowed her brow in a signal to say nothing.

‘You’re taking this, Investigator… Special Investigator Drew?’ Barlow asked.

Winter nodded. ‘Special circumstances. Miss Jansen is considered politically important.’

‘Right, the whole “girl from Old Earth” thing. Okay. Good luck with the case.’ Barlow made her way out and Winter waited for her to be out of the room and the door closed behind her before saying anything else.

‘It might have been a little easier if you’d left him alive.’

‘You run the security services,’ Gillian commented. ‘They do whatever you tell them. Would you like some coffee?’

‘No thank you, it makes me hyper.’ She did move over to one of the couches beside Gillian and sat down. ‘Now, we identified the man who shot at you and you have done the galaxy a favour. He’s not exactly a first-rate assassin, but he has been identified as the person responsible for various killings on the Rim Worlds. Someone hired him in to send you a warning shot.’

‘Nice of them to send a professional,’ Aneka commented. ‘It doesn’t make sense though. The Knights of the Void try to kidnap me, and then an assassin is sent to scare me. Fanatics and professional killers don’t go well together. And what’s the point in trying to scare me if I don’t know why?’

‘I don’t know why, but I can theorise about the connection.’ She looked around at Gillian and then Ella. ‘This does not leave this room. We have had a suspicion for a while that the Knights of the Void are operated by another group. As yet, we don’t know who, but there are a number of candidates. Certain commercial interests would benefit from a reduction in legal regulation. Of course, there’s Humanity First. Charles Hunter has decried the Knights’ activities, but his goals are a subset of theirs.’

‘A subset?’

‘Humanity First wants the human worlds to secede from the Federation,’ Gillian said. ‘The stated view of the Knights is more of an anarchist agenda, but dissolving the Federation is certainly among their goals.’

‘Hunter is rich enough, but the probability favours one of the trans-stellar corporations,’ Winter said. ‘I have people going over our gunman’s data to see whether we can find anything. The only other option is to wait and see whether they make themselves and their wishes known to you.’

Aneka gave a shrug. ‘I’m a soldier, I’m used to waiting.’

Yorkbridge, Leighbridge Airport, 26.6.524 FSC.

‘That’s what we’re flying on?’ Aneka asked. Outside the windows was an incredibly sleek, ultra-streamlined aircraft with stubby, back-swept wings. It looked like one of the lifting-body designs NASA had come up with.

‘Uh-huh,’ Ella replied. ‘Hypersonic transport. It uses a multimode scramjet engine to get it off the ground and land, and a fusion torch to accelerate it into a ballistic trajectory for high-speed flight. A little expensive to use, because they don’t carry many passengers, but it’s the fastest way to get to Antipose.’

‘Antipose because it’s on the bottom of the globe?’

‘Something like that.’

‘You know, I expected to spend your birthday in bed.’

Ella giggled. ‘Tempting, but I haven’t seen my mother in over a year and I’d like you to meet her.’

Aneka grimaced. ‘Back in my time, “meeting the parents” was one of those horrific things you had to go through when things got serious.’

‘Mom’s really great. She’ll love you.’

‘Yeah, but I’m the big, bad woman from the past who’s fucking her daughter.’

‘Aneka, she’s a stripper. Seriously, where do you think I get my attitude to sex?’ She turned her head and added, ‘Come on, we’re boarding,’ before Aneka could respond, and they trooped toward the gate.

With only sixteen passengers, there was not much boarding to do. Fifteen minutes later the aircraft was taxiing out from the terminal. Aneka sat strapped into the very comfortable seat watching the small screen in the back of the chair in front of her. There were no windows, just the view screens, though Aneka was pleased to discover that there was a public wireless network on board which gave access to several applications for entertainment and communication, and allowed access to the ship’s navigation system. Most of the passengers would have to use portable devices for that, but Aneka watched the craft’s progress in-vision while the outside view displayed on the screen in front of her.

‘Here we go,’ Aneka said quietly as the graphics she was watching showed them lining up with the runway.

Ella gripped her seat arms. ‘I hate this bit.’

‘You fly on spaceships.’

‘They’re huge, and go straight up and down, and have antigrav. This thing is held up by aerodynamics.’

‘Even in my day, air travel was statistically the safest way to get about.’

Ella just grunted, but then they were being pushed back into their seats by the thrust of the engine and Aneka let it go. Fear of flying was not a rational issue and she was sure Ella would be fine when they got airborne.

The craft seemed to take a while to lift, but once it got its wheels off the runway it raised its nose steeply and started to climb. Where a normal aircraft would have throttled back and levelled out after a few minutes, this one powered up when it had reached three thousand metres, pressing them into their seats at around one gravity. That was just the start. The navigation display was now counting down to the ignition of the fusion engines.

‘Does this thing actually make orbit?’ Aneka asked.

‘Technically they can, but they aren’t really rated for it. It follows a parabolic arc, skims over the upper atmosphere and then drops back down. The acceleration will cut back once we’ve hit the required speed, but it gets a bit worse first.’

‘Uh-huh. Engines switching over… now.’ They had hit twenty thousand metres and the engine tone shifted from a sort of throb to a high-pitched roar as the fusion torch drives cut in. Somewhere behind them hydrogen was being fused into helium and the resulting energy was being focussed into an intense exhaust cone. In under five seconds they were being pressed into their seats at twice normal gravity. ‘Oh wow,’ Aneka breathed. Now this was what she sort of expected spaceflight to be like. Antigravity systems really took the discomfort out of it.

The screen in front of her showed the sky turning from blue to black as they rose into thinner and thinner layers of atmosphere. The pressure began to ease off not long after they had passed through into the lower bands of what Aneka thought of as space. She heard the engines drop to idle, and then she was floating against the seat straps.

‘Zero G,’ Aneka commented.

‘Uh-huh, but it’s only for forty minutes or so. The whole point of this is that it’s fast.’ She still did not look particularly comfortable. Maybe it was being in what amounted to space without a shipsuit on.

Most of the other passengers seemed to be business people, the majority dressed in some form of suit. It was unlikely that you would see some of the outfits in the City in London, or on Wall Street, but what they were wearing was more formal than the casual outfits Aneka and Ella were in. Skirts were shorter, blouses and shirts were translucent, very sheer, or mesh, and the tailoring was more form-fitting. On the other hand, just like on any commuter flight, everyone spent the entire time working on computers. In contrast to flights Aneka was used to, there was a lot of chatter since everyone could, and did, use their personal phones relayed through the ship’s comms system.

Ella had said that they were meeting her mother at the club where she worked and then going on from there, and they had some very basic hand luggage with them, so they had dressed for a club. Aneka suspected that Ella was wishing she had worn trousers as her micro-skirt floated languidly in her lap. Aneka was in her jeans and basque, though Ella had pointed out a feature of the SensiCloth she had failed to mention when they had bought the outfit, and her nice, black jeans were now semi-transparent. There had been eye-rolling.

Aneka had expected to have problems taking her gun on the flight, but Winter had been rather more thorough in preparing the paperwork than she had expected. The pistol, in its case, was in the overhead locker. Airport security had passed her straight through without comment and Aneka had made a note to check exactly what Winter had authorised her to do. To be honest, she was carrying the gun out of paranoia; there had been no sign of the Knights for days and she hoped they would not be disturbed on this little trip.

Of course, assuming you would not be troubled was a sure-fire way of making sure you would.

Barnard City

The airport was around fifty kilometres from Barnard City and Ella had made sure they were covered for transport by arranging a hire car for the day. Aneka had been impressed with the efficiency of the system; Ella had arranged the hire in Yorkbridge the day before and been given a bay number to collect the vehicle from there and then, and it would respond to her transponder as soon as they arrived. There had also been some bemusement when they had arrived to discover a huge, plastic suitcase was in the bay they had been sent to. It had promptly unfolded itself into a car. Aneka had felt close to a huge geek-out.

Driving into the city, Aneka had to admit the vehicle was comfortable. The seats adjusted to your body and came with secure crash harnesses. Crashes were unlikely, though Aneka was a little freaked that Ella was not actually driving. The car was self-piloting and hooked into the city’s traffic management system. No accidents, no congestion, no getting lost.

The city itself was more industrial complex than city. They drove through several kilometres of factories and chemical plants before they passed into office buildings and then a central core of high-rise shops and residences. It looked like a less well-maintained version of Yorkbridge Mid-town, though Aneka suspected that it was more that it was just dirtier.

‘There are more Rim Worlders out here than in Yorkbridge,’ Ella said as the electric car slid smoothly through the streets. ‘There’s a bit more crime, but not much, and they play a little harder. A lot of them are temporary residents, in for the plants. They’ll stay here for a few years and then move off-world with enough money for a comfortable retirement on the Rim.’

‘Things really don’t change much, no matter how much they do,’ Aneka replied.

The car pulled off on the left, approaching a large door which slid smoothly upward as it did so. A soft voice announced that, ‘We have arrived at the nearest parking location to your destination. Parking has been arranged in bay ninety-three. Halting at disembarkation zone.’ The car pulled to a stop beside what looked like a pedestrian access area and Ella climbed out. Aneka did the same, walking around the car just before it pulled away again, going deeper into the structure.

‘It’ll go fold itself up and park until we need it again,’ Ella said.

‘Those things can’t fold up while you’re in them, can they?’

‘Technically not.’ Ella started for the stairs up to ground level.

‘Not a comforting answer.’

Up on the street they made their way along the pavement about three hundred metres past various signs which advertised drinks, large-screen sports displays, and live music available within, and then crossed the road to another club where the sign said ‘Live Girls!’ It really was just like walking through Soho back in the day. Ella pushed in through the door and they found themselves in a room with matt black walls, a bouncer standing in one of the corners, and a pretty, black-haired girl behind a counter. She was wearing a string bikini top and a bright smile. Yes, this seemed like a strip club.

‘Good morning. I’m Petra, welcome to the Black Lily. There’s a cover…’ Aneka saw Petra’s eyes flick downward, presumably to look at a hidden console where their identification was being displayed since Al had said he had been asked for it. Petra looked up again, at Ella. ‘Oh! You’re Janna’s daughter. Sorry. Go straight through, you’re both covered. Janna’s on stage in about five minutes. I’ll let her know you’re here.’

Ella gave her a smile. ‘Thanks, Petra.’ She started for the inner door, and Aneka gave the receptionist a nod and a smile and followed.

The club was as dark as the reception hall, the walls painted gloss black and the floor made of black-stained wood. The furniture, low couches and tables encircling a stage area at one end of the room, was also black. Well, it would tend not to show stains.

Over in the stage area a tall, slim redhead was swinging around a steel pole set between floor and ceiling. She was dressed in a tight, black mini-dress and platform shoes, and doing a fairly impressive acrobatics display. Aneka had been to strip joints before, usually with men who had been far more enthusiastic about it than she was, but when you worked with a largely male group in a masculine environment, you did your best to fit in. She noticed that, while the clientele were largely male, there were several women in as well. The atmosphere was different, more like a general entertainment establishment than a sweaty pit of barely restrained testosterone.

Ella located an empty table with a good view of the stage and walked over to it, and one of the waitresses appeared as though she had been dropped in by parachute. ‘Hello, I’m Tina and I’ll be really happy to be your waitress.’ Tina was short, cute, and stacked, with a bright smile, short, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and no clothing above the waist. ‘You’re Janna’s daughter, right? You look a little like her.’

‘Yeah,’ Ella said. ‘I got most of my looks from her.’

‘Would you like a drink?’

‘Couple of glasses of wine?’ Ella glanced at Aneka, getting a nod.

‘Sure. Janna said to charge it to her. She said to say, “Don’t argue, it cost you enough to get here.”’

Ella smirked and shook her head. ‘Okay. Thanks, Tina.’

‘Have you been here before?’ Aneka asked once Tina had gone to get their drinks.

‘Once, about five years ago. Mom says the management is good and the girls here aren’t as catty as they can get in some places. She likes it and they seem to like her.’

‘You know, I think if you asked people whether strip clubs would still exist in the year three thousand, they’d have said no.’

‘Why?’

‘It’s demeaning to women, along with porn, fashion magazines, uh… photography, I think.’

‘What about the male strippers?’

‘Well, there were a lot less of them and it was women who had the chip on their shoulder about being demeaned.’

‘Huh. I take it you didn’t think it was demeaning?’

Aneka shrugged. ‘Oh, it probably was. I just found the people who went on about it annoying. The best way I found to make myself equal to men was to damn well be better than them.’

Ella grinned. ‘What if the women wanted to be strippers?’

‘I’m not sure anyone ever grew up with stripper as a career plan. Back then anyway.’

‘Oh, well, Mom wanted to dance when she was six, according to her, and she tried out all sorts of things, but she says that she likes the intimacy of stripping.’ Aneka’s eyebrows went up. ‘I mean, it’s being close to the audience. Like you’re dancing just for them rather than some huge group, or for a camera.’

‘I… guess I can see that. And, to be honest, the audience seems better than the clubs I’ve been in before.’

Tina was walking back with the drinks and the music changed over from the electro-pop the redhead had danced to to something more like a smooth jazz. ‘Janna’s on,’ Tina whispered as she put the drinks down. ‘Enjoy yourselves. She’s off after this set, so she’ll come over then.’

As Aneka looked back toward the stage, a woman slipped out of the hidden backstage entrance dressed in a red, wet-look bikini, fishnet hold-ups, and high-heeled platform sandals. She was taller than Ella, a little wider in the hip, and her hair was blue-black and cut short, but the most noticeable difference between Ella and Janna was that Janna had huge breasts. Aneka looked between them as the older Narrows stalked toward the pole.

‘What happened to your boobs?’

Ella winced. ‘Mom had a bit of work done, but I didn’t get her breasts, no.’

Janna saw them and flashed a slightly brighter smile in their direction, but she was a professional, and she had a job to do before she could socialise. As the music’s beat grew stronger, going from a jazz-like melody to something with a mix of rock in it, Janna gripped the pole and swung upwards.

‘She’s good,’ Aneka said after a minute or so.

‘She’s been doing this for almost a century. She should be.’

‘Yeah, but… she’s even more bendy than you are.’

‘I don’t take the time to practise. Never have. She always said I could be that flexible if I wanted.’ There was a little hint of envy in Ella’s voice. ‘She’s incredible in bed.’

‘How, exactly, do you know that?’

Ella blushed profusely. ‘I… We’ve never! I mean, we used to talk about it and, um… I saw a video once.’

‘Incest, I take it, is still a taboo.’

‘Well, not a general one. It’s not illegal or anything. Having children by a close relative is, but not actual sex. Most people think it’s distasteful.’ There was a slight pause and then she added, ‘Won’t stop Mom making a pass at you though. She is a lesbian.’

Aneka blinked, her mouth hanging open for a second before she came up with, ‘So, uh, how did you happen?’

‘She went off men after Dad. Uh, not because of Dad, but when we came to New Earth she swore off men entirely. She never told me why, but I think it was some of the stuff she did to get the money.’

‘Ah.’ Aneka was silent for a while, watching Janna as she swung and swooped around the pole. ‘She must really love you.’

‘It’s mutual.’

There was applause from the audience as the music ended, and Aneka looked back to the stage to see Janna picking up her bikini and taking a bow. Then, instead of turning back to the backstage entrance, the dancer tripped lightly out through the audience heading for their table, still naked aside from her stockings and pumps. Grinning brightly, she bent at the hips and gave Ella a kiss on the cheek before collapsing breathlessly onto the seat beside Aneka. Close up, there were more differences: slightly thinner lips and a harder, thinner face, brown eyes instead of blue. The similarities between them were quite obvious though: Ella was her mother’s daughter.

‘Happy birthday, daughter,’ Janna said. ‘What’s this? Sev–’

‘Nuh-huh, no mentioning the age,’ Ella interrupted. ‘Aneka’s a little sensitive about it.’

Janna turned to Aneka, smiling brightly. Aneka could see where Ella had got her inability to hide her emotions from too; Janna’s emotions were written all over her face and posture. ‘So this is the famous Aneka Jansen. Pleased to meet you. I’d shake hands but I’m covered in sweat.’

‘Nice meeting you, Janna. I’ve heard a lot about you, and your dancing is amazing.’

Janna’s back straightened a little at the compliment. ‘Thank you. I have to say, Ella, you’ve really fallen on your feet with this one. She’s absolutely gorgeous, and you can talk about ancient history with her. Did you wish really hard or something?’

Ella giggled and blushed. ‘I said she was gorgeous when I first saw her, and she has given us huge amounts of valuable information about Old Earth, but mostly she’s just a really nice person.’

‘And I’m going to have a swollen head if this keeps up,’ Aneka told them.

‘Can’t have that,’ Janna said. ‘Your head is just perfect the way it is.’

Aneka smiled and wondered whether she really was going to have to turn down an offer of sex from her girlfriend’s mother.

~~~

Janna lived in an apartment block about ten minutes’ drive from the Black Lily. Normally she would have walked it, but since they had the car she got to ride. Aneka sat in the back to allow the two Narrows to sit beside each other. Besides, it kept Janna from watching her with hungry eyes.

The woman’s street clothes were not that much different from her working ones. Ella obviously got her fashion sense from her mother too. Currently, Janna was dressed in a red, fishnet teddy, a micro-skirt, and thigh boots with five-inch heels. She was actually managing to make Ella look conservative.

‘I’ve got stuff in for a meal,’ Janna was saying as the car pulled into the block’s garage, ‘so we can sit and chat, and you can tell me all about your adventures on… was it Alpha Mensae? Oh, pull into the spot there. I’ll clear it for visitor parking.’

Ella took the wheel and directed the vehicle smoothly into the space Janna had indicated. ‘Alpha Mensae Four, yes. There’s some stuff we can’t talk about. You have been warned.’

‘Secrets… How exciting.’ She opened the door and climbed out.

‘Uh-huh, but these are real “we can’t tell people” secrets so it’s not as much fun.’

‘Oh,’ Janna replied, sounding a little deflated. ‘The news reports said you were a soldier on Old Earth, Aneka. You’d be used to secrets, I guess?’

‘Some,’ Aneka replied as she climbed out of the car. ‘I tended to avoid knowing them if I could possibly manage it. I’m having to keep more here than I did back there.’

Janna led the way toward the residents’ lift as the car quietly reformed itself into a brick behind them. ‘That must be annoying. I hate having to keep secrets. I’m terrible at it… so I’ll just get this out in the open and we can get it over with. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in a quick fuck after dinner?’

Aneka could tell Ella was mildly mortified, but far less so than she would have been if the position was reversed. However, the car journey had given Aneka the time to consider a response. ‘No, Janna. From what Ella told me, we don’t really have the time to do your talents justice, so I’ll have to decline until we can do more than a quickie.’

Janna nodded. ‘That’s fair.’

Ella managed to position herself in the lift so that she could whisper in Aneka’s ear on the way up. ‘That was a damn clever answer.’

‘I had time to think about it,’ Aneka replied, ‘but you do realise she’s going to want to collect on that sometime.’

Ella’s grimace said she did know, all too well.

~~~

‘I like your mother,’ Aneka said as the car whisked them back toward the airport, ‘even if she does have a little trouble taking “no” for an answer.’

‘Huh,’ Ella grunted. ‘I think she was hoping the alcohol might have weakened your resolve.’ She gave Aneka a slightly mischievous grin. ‘Android body wins again.’

‘You seem to be taking it rather well.’

Ella shrugged. ‘I can’t really blame her. I know what she’s like and I love her anyway… and you really are absolutely gorgeous. I’m lucky I got you first because you could do better than me.’

‘Insecurity doesn’t look good on you, Ella.’

‘It’s true! I’m good-looking, I admit, but you’re a work of art. Do you think people would be quite so enthusiastic about an ugly girl from the past?’

‘Well, I suppose, but…’

‘No buts. Insecurity doesn’t look good on someone who looks like you. Makes it sound like you’re fishing for compliments.’

Aneka closed her mouth, and then tried a different tack. ‘But I don’t want to be famous.’

Ella giggled. ‘Stunningly beautiful, unique, and modest. Sucks to be you, doesn’t it?’

University of New Earth, 27.6.524 FSC.

Aneka had covered political systems and the development of the British monarchy, and there had been no sign of her mysterious assailants. No watchers, no attackers, no snipers, no word. She was beginning to wonder whether they had given up, but she still carried her pistol with her and kept a watch on her surroundings.

She could not watch everyone, however; she did not think she had to for one thing. When Ella went out to get coffee no one had batted an eyelid. Gillian was busy talking her way through the Tudors and Aneka was having to try really hard to remember school history lessons. Her main problem was that she kept confusing the facts with Carry on Henry. It was Al who prodded her after a while.

‘Ella has been gone for forty-five minutes, three-point-two seconds. That is twenty-five minutes longer than required to make the round trip.’ The comment came with a map, and calculations of average speed, time to buy the coffee, and distances involved.

‘Put a call through to her,’ Aneka replied. Aloud she said, ‘Ella’s been a while.’

Gillian glanced at the clock display at one corner of her desk and frowned. ‘She has. She’s probably talking to someone, or…’

‘Ella’s phone is not responding,’ Al broke in in Aneka’s head. ‘I’ve hacked the University’s tracking net. Her identity chip is not responding from anywhere within the grounds.’

‘Al can’t find her anywhere in the University. Call security.’ Aneka got to her feet and started for the door. ‘And don’t leave this room.’

~~~

‘Campus security has called in the Peacekeepers,’ Gillian’s voice said in Aneka’s head. ‘They’re watching every way off the island.’

‘If someone took her,’ Aneka replied, ‘they had at least thirty minutes to get her out.’

‘You can’t find any trace of her?’

‘No, I…’ She stopped, frowning at a heat signature behind one of the planters.

‘Aneka?’

‘I found three coffee cups dropped in a corner. I don’t like the coincidence.’ Her eyes scanned around the area, but concrete and paving stones were tough to track on. ‘Al, give me the nearest exit points from here.’

‘You’re going after her?’ Gillian asked.

A map of the University appeared in Aneka’s vision field. There were three nearby points of egress. She picked the one nearest to the monorail station and started toward it. ‘I expect I’ll get nowhere, but I’m going to see if I can find anything.’

Passing through a tunnel from the inner buildings to the outer loop she spotted something scattered in the shadows. She dropped to one knee to examine part of it: a piece of casing, and close by was a fragment of circuit board. ‘I found some bits of a PDA. Not exactly provable, but I’m guessing this is Ella’s. It’s shattered.’

‘That explains her not taking calls, but what about her transponder?’ Gillian was starting to sound very worried now.

‘Short-range jammer,’ Aneka suggested. ‘The power on those things is only good for a couple of metres at best. It wouldn’t take much to block it off.’

‘True, but if they used the monorail the security systems would tag her as a fare-jumper.’

‘Hacking into the transport system computers would be possible,’ Al said, ‘but potentially hazardous.’

‘Do it.’ She started toward the station. Al seemed to take forever to respond, but in reality it was maybe a minute.

‘She boarded the train forty minutes ago and disembarked at the first stop on the mainland. I’m afraid they probably had ground transport waiting there.’

‘I would have. Send a message through to Winter with the information we have. I don’t think contacting the Peacekeepers directly would be a good idea.’

‘It might be hard to explain how you got the information.’ There was a slight pause and then he added, ‘I have an incoming video message. No identity markers on it. Untraceable, for me anyway.’

‘Play it.’ An image flicked on in-vision and Aneka’s brow furrowed.

Ella’s right eye was blackened and there looked like there was blood on the corner of her mouth. ‘Aneka, they’ve got me. They s-say they’re Knights. They want to meet you. A-at the coordinates attached to this message in one hour. Don’t come…’ Her rushed sentence was cut off sharply as a stick of some kind appeared from off-camera, jabbing into her ribs, and words became a shriek of pain. The video ended and Al put up a map of the city with a point marked at the far northern edge.

‘I assume we’re going?’ Al asked. ‘Should I pass this on to Winter?’

‘We’re going, via the apartment. I’m not turning up there in these stupid heels.’

‘And Winter?’

‘No. I’ll handle this.’

‘We’ll handle this,’ the AI said.

Aneka smiled as she started up the steps to the station. ‘All right, we will.’

Yorkbridge, Tanner Business District.

The coordinates Aneka had been given were for a disused warehouse at the northern edge of what looked like a business park. Offices and warehouses, all of which looked like they had seen better days, were arranged within a grid of roads like Lego bricks had been dropped into place from orbit.

There had been no further instructions about entering the building, but the coordinates actually marked the meeting site as inside it, on the middle of three floors, toward the rear. She went in through one of the doors on the ground floor, finding it unlocked which was both encouraging and worrying. She had no floor plan for the building, so the best she could do was dead reckoning, and she started off down the corridor inside, heading in the general direction of the meeting location. She found a circular, iron staircase leading up from the central point of the building and started upward.

‘This staircase looks new,’ she commented silently. ‘Someone’s actually discoloured the metal to look like fake rust.’

‘Implying that the derelict impression is a cover?’ Al responded.

‘Yes, but then there’s the question of what it’s covering.’ She was at the top of the stairs and there was still no sign of anyone, neither Ella nor her captors.

‘Ten metres due north and you’ll find out.’

There was no way to go due north, unless she felt like smashing through a wall. Turning right she moved down a few metres and then could pass through the wall which appeared to divide the building. Her eyes narrowed: it was a very thick wall. She figured there was a metre or so of corridor from one side of the building to the other, and when she got out the other side she found herself in a narrower corridor with thickly plastered walls painted gleaming white. The contrast was a little jarring, but she ignored it and started back toward the coordinates.

Sure enough, there was another whitewashed corridor branching off just south of the meeting point, but Aneka pretty much ignored the details as soon as she got to it. Sitting tied to a chair in the middle of a small, white room at the end of the corridor, bound, gagged, and naked, was Ella. Aneka’s pace grew purposeful as she started toward her, even though the little redhead was frantically shaking her head.

‘It’s a trap,’ Al commented.

‘I know.’

‘And you’re walking in anyway.’

‘I said I was used to waiting. Well, I am, but the waiting’s over and I want to kick some butt. Besides, this is the only way we’ll find out what’s going on.’ Visibly at least she was unarmed and, provided they still did not know what she was, that gave her an edge.

The room Ella was sitting in the middle of had a different quality to the corridor leading to it. Still white, the walls had the smooth, plastic contours of a vessel rather than a building. The effect was further enhanced when a heavy door, like something on an airlock, slid down over the entrance as Aneka unbuckled the heavy, rubber ball gag and pulled it out of Ella’s mouth.

‘You shouldn’t have come,’ Ella said, her voice weak. ‘It’s a trap.’

‘I pretty much figured that.’ There were four small air vents near the ceiling and vapour began to emerge from them. Aneka heard the hiss from somewhere behind the walls, but she also heard something a little more worrying. Somewhere deeper into the structure an engine was starting up.

‘Gas,’ Ella said. ‘T-tranq… tranquil…’ She sagged forward in her bonds and Aneka checked her pulse, still strong.

‘Al,’ Aneka said silently, ‘see if you can hack their network. I’ll be faking unconsciousness.’ She fell sideways onto one hip, holding herself up on one arm for a second before closing her eyes and collapsing.

‘The airlock is shielded against EM,’ Al said. ‘I can’t reach their network. On the other hand, trying to break out is likely futile. Your blaster might have been able to do it, but it would likely have killed Ella doing so. As it is…’

‘Then we wait for someone to come get us. Nothing else we can do.’

There was a pause; she was right and there was nothing much to be done. ‘I can provide a virtual pack of cards if you wish.’

Aneka had to try hard not to laugh.

Odanari, 29.6.524 FSC.

Ella’s eyes flickered open and, to her immense relief, the first thing she saw was Aneka lying on the bed beside her. She had no idea where she was, or how long she had been unconscious, or why Aneka was wearing a thin, white, cloth shift, but at least they were together. That had to be a good thing, right?

‘You’re awake,’ Aneka said, her voice soft. ‘I was starting to think they’d gassed you into a coma.’

‘Where are we?’

‘I’m not entirely sure, but I’ve been able to make a calculated guess. The local star is giving off light which suggests a forty-two hundred kelvin temperature. That’s around a K-six. The gravity is a little low, so is the atmospheric pressure. It’s warm, warmer than New Earth. We were travelling for about thirty hours. The best planet Al can find within that sort of range of New Earth, and with those characteristics, is Odanari.’

Ella’s eyes widened. ‘Seriously? I never thought I’d see this place. It’s a rich person’s playground. Miles of untouched jungle, huge expanses of open sea to cruise on, hundreds of isolated islands, and almost no rules.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Al has the standard files on the place. Around a thousand residents and perhaps another thousand who come in and out. A couple of thousand staff running the resort for Edenville Corporation. A hedonistic paradise for the ultra-rich. Oddly, the brochure doesn’t mention the terrorist training camp.’ She raised her eyebrows and nodded over Ella’s shoulder, and the little redhead turned over to look.

They were in what looked like a beach house made of smooth, dark wood. The entire side of the building was open to the air, though there were some curtains gathered up at the sides of the three support posts which looked like they could be drawn across the space. The sand beyond was white, muted a little by the slightly orange light. Beyond the sand was a calm, deep blue sea, lapping slowly back and forth. It was idyllic, beautiful, marred only by the twenty or so men doing martial arts drills. Ella could see two men, guards, walking along the edge of the beach with stubby rifles in their arms. The guns had twin barrels, a larger one mounted beneath the smaller one; even she could recognise an under-barrel grenade launcher. These guys meant business.

‘Oh,’ Ella said. ‘This wasn’t on Lifestyles of the Hyper-rich either. What are we doing here?’

‘Really no idea. They carried us over here from a landing platform to the north-west. My clothes were taken, they treated your injuries, and they put us in these dresses and left us to wake up. Technically for you to wake up, but I was faking it.’ She shifted, sliding herself closer and putting her arm around Ella’s waist. ‘There are cameras in every room, three in here, and I’m sure they’ve got audio surveillance as well. They haven’t scanned me or anything so I don’t think they know I’m not Human. I’d like to keep it that way as long as possible. It’s the only advantage we have.’

‘Why didn’t you do something before now?’

‘We were locked in an airlock until we arrived here, and then they were standing over us with Gauss rifles. I could have taken them, probably, but I doubt I could have done it without you ending up dead.’

‘But now we’ve no weapons…’

‘I am a weapon. And I know the direction they took my stuff. I’ll see about getting it back when we know more about this island.’ Her head shifted slightly and she placed a finger over Ella’s lips. She could hear footfalls on wooden boards; someone was approaching. ‘Someone’s coming.’

Four people appeared at the side of the building a couple of seconds later. Two were large men, heavy on the muscle, tall, attractive in a somewhat thuggish way, and carrying rifles. There was an older man dressed in a lab coat, bald with a long nose and very sharp, blue eyes. And there was Charles Hunter, smiling.

‘Ladies, welcome to Odanari. I did say you would come around to my way of thinking.’

Aneka sat up, sliding to the bottom of the bed, and slipping her legs over the edge. Both guards swung their rifles up immediately. Aneka looked between them and then at Hunter. She could say she had had no choice in the matter, but that kind of posturing was pointless. ‘Just what is your way of thinking, Hunter?’

‘Putting Humanity first, of course.’

‘Great sound bite, but what does that mean?’

Hunter turned, sweeping an arm out to indicate the men training on the beach. ‘I’ve been searching, Miss Jansen. Searching for the finest specimens the Human race has to offer and bringing them here. Here the men learn to use their bodies to the best of their abilities so that, when the time comes, my army can sweep out and destroy the fools in the New Earth Administration who keep us tied to this failing Federation. Doctor Rush here makes sure that everyone who comes here is in peak physical condition and is genetically sound.’

‘And the women?’ Ella asked. Aneka thought she knew the answer to that one. The fact that Ella did not spoke for the level of equality most of the Federation’s population enjoyed.

‘Women have a greater purpose, Miss Narrows. They represent the means of creating the next generation of Humans. Despite your background, Doctor Rush tells me that you have a very respectable genetic heritage. You’ll make an excellent mother.’ Ella’s eyes widened: she really had not met this kind of misogyny before.

‘I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, Hunter,’ Aneka said, ‘but women don’t get pregnant these days unless they want to.’

‘Not an issue in your case, Miss Jansen. You were born before this travesty of evolution was engineered in. As for Miss Narrows, she was given a shot of Ovanimax during her treatment earlier.’ He turned, his eyes hardening as he looked at them. ‘Here are the rules of my island. You can go anywhere you wish, unless the area is marked as off limits. Those areas have defences. It would be unwise to ignore the signs. It is twelve hundred kilometres to the nearest island. Odanari has no dangerous indigenous life, but you would not survive the swim. You will accept every demand for sex you receive. Failure to do so will result in punishment. I won’t kill you for it, but you’ll wish you were dead. Are we clear?’

‘Crystal,’ Aneka replied. Ella just nodded.

‘Good. Try to enjoy yourselves.’ He turned on his heel and walked away, trailed by the silent doctor and the two guards.

Aneka looked around at Ella. She was paler than usual. ‘Ovanimax?’

‘The reproduction controls we have are hormonal,’ Ella replied, her voice a dull monotone. ‘They go wrong in some people and they can’t have children naturally. Ovanimax was developed to activate the ovulation process in women like that.’

‘So…’

‘If I have sex, I could get pregnant. I-it’s unlikely for a few days, but still possible. After that…’

‘Well, we should be okay then,’ Aneka said, trying to sound as confident as possible. ‘I don’t plan to stick around here any longer than I have to.’

~~~

Odanari had about a sixteen-and-a-half-hour rotation period, give or take a couple of minutes, which meant a relatively short day. Aneka had wanted to use as much of that time as possible to get a look around the island, but the practicality of the situation was that she and Ella were the new girls on the island. They were a novelty. One the male breeding stock felt should be tried out. Mostly, however, they turned up one at a time and Aneka had no trouble diverting their attention to her. Even men who appeared to have been indoctrinated to believe that they were supposed to impregnate as many women as they could to further the race noticed Ella’s unwillingness and went for the easier option, and Aneka’s liberal use of her sex pheromone helped.

Still, as the Sun began to go down and food was brought into the hut, Aneka found herself cradling Ella’s head in her lap while a man with muscles like a steroid abuser banged into the little redhead, and Ella sobbed. For once, fear had been more of an aphrodisiac than Aneka’s chemicals, and mewls and sobs were punctuated by his grunts as he thrust far harder than was necessary. None of them had been particularly interested in the pleasure of their partner: ‘sow your seed and leave’ had been the order of the day. This one, however, was getting his rocks off on seeing Ella in pain. Yeah, he was a wonderful specimen of Humanity.

Finished, he pulled out, leering at Aneka. ‘Give me a minute, I can do you too,’ he suggested.

Aneka did what she said she would never do and pumped dominance pheromones into the air. ‘Not that I’m saying I won’t,’ she told him, ‘but if you don’t piss off and let me see to my friend, your body will wash up sometime next week when the gasses make you bloat and your corpse is such a mess they won’t be able to tell how badly you were beaten.’

For a second his stupid, leering, macho grin stayed in place, but then he started to realise that she was quite serious, and quite sure she could do what she was suggesting. The grin went stale. ‘I’ll catch you in the morning,’ he said, backing out past the curtains.

Aneka picked the still sobbing Ella off the bed and carried her through into the small-but-functional bathroom. Turning on the shower and waiting for it to run hot, she pulled Ella under the water and held her there, bodies pressed together while the shower washed tears and other things away.

‘I’m going to take great pleasure in killing that one,’ Aneka whispered.

‘Not for me,’ Ella whispered back. ‘This shouldn’t matter. I can get through this. It’s not like I’ve not had a lot of sex. And I’m a psychologist. I can work through this.’

‘I’ve no doubt you can, but I’m still killing that bastard and everyone else who comes to this hut.’ She was silent for a second, though she could feel Ella’s body tensing, asking silently for an explanation. ‘Twenty-oh-six I got asked to go into the Congo after a naturalist and a film crew that had gone into the jungle with her. Fucking idiots the lot of them. The Congo had been one big war zone for a decade or more. It was pretty well known that some of the combatants had been using rape as a weapon. Against men and women, actually. We found the naturalist and her cameraman four days in. He’d been shot, and she’d been raped and shot. Then we found the village they’d been heading for, and that’s where we found the director they’d sent along on their little field trip. It wasn’t like she was the only one. The guerrillas had been through the whole village, killing, beating, raping, but she was a black girl from America wearing Western clothes… They’d raped her, ten of them, more, and then they’d raped her with the barrel of a twelve gauge and told her they’d pull the trigger if she didn’t come. And then they’d pegged her out on the edge of the jungle, naked, with a live hand grenade pushed into her…’ She cut off, swallowing back bile at the memory of finding that one woman, even though there had been so many others.

‘You saved her?’

‘We got her out. I heard that she recovered almost fully, after a couple of years of reconstructive surgery. Physically anyway. The other women in that village though, they just had to live with what had happened to them. It wasn’t actually what happened there that got to me though, it was the fact that I couldn’t do anything about it. By the time we got there, the soldiers who’d done it were gone, long gone. I wanted to rip them apart. So this isn’t entirely for you, and it certainly isn’t for me, but it is for those women I couldn’t avenge back then. Okay?’

Ella nodded against Aneka’s shoulder. She was trembling, despite the hot water, and Aneka was not sure whether it was the story or her recent treatment. ‘What are you going to do? If they’re in here fucking us all the time…’

‘It’ll be dark soon. This world has no moon so it should be really dark. I doubt we’ll have visitors, so I’ll go scout. Once I know what’s here, I can work up a plan to get us out.’

Ella’s arms tightened behind Aneka’s shoulders. ‘What if someone comes while you’re away?’

‘You steel yourself and do as they say, but I think they’ll stay away once the lights are out.’ She grabbed soap from the rack beside the showerhead. ‘Let’s get you clean, and then I’ll go hunt us a way off this rock.’

~~~

The island was roughly circular, about a kilometre in diameter, with a promontory sticking out to the north-west. The spaceship landing area was on the end of that promontory, little more than a concrete platform flat enough to put a ship down on and coloured to look like the local rock.

There were fifteen huts including the one Aneka and Ella were in, all set along the beach. Each had two women in them and, from the heat signatures Aneka could see through the curtains, a good two-thirds of those were pregnant. The men were housed in barracks in the interior of the island next to what appeared to be a parade ground.

There was also a lot of heavy brush as soon as you got off the beach, which was good because there were still guards even with the light coming from stars and little else. They were wearing some form of night-vision goggles, though it was a guess what type. Aneka was guessing they were not to the same spec as her eyes because no one had seen her moving naked through the undergrowth. A white dress was not a useful thing to wear when sneaking around, even if Ella had looked a little perplexed when she had stripped before going out. Aneka had considered the possibility that the dresses were there specifically for visibility and rejected it; they were easy to remove, which was probably the real reason they were being worn.

Despite what Hunter had said when he had first met them, Aneka was a little surprised to come across a sign which read ‘Keep Out. Minefield. Lethal Force.’ There was a building about twenty metres away, which was probably the reason for the minefield, and any building protected by mines had to be worth investigating. She was even more surprised when her enhanced vision highlighted the minute differences in thermal signature and ground displacement which marked where the mines were buried.

‘If they have proximity sensors,’ Al said, ‘picking your way through them could still be dangerous. There must be a clear path for people to visit the building through.’

‘Yes, but it’s more likely to have guards near it. The mines are buried, I doubt they’ve got anything so clever attached to them.’ She tried to make herself sound confident, but she was figuratively sweating as she moved slowly across the ground, stepping where the earth was undisturbed.

The building was low, a sort of blockhouse built of solid Plascrete as best she could tell, but there was a large ventilation duct on the back wall which she was able to prise off with the application of some android strength. And I’m crawling through ducts again. She slipped inside on hands and knees, and made her way in as far as the first vent which happened to be just inside a fan which was doing the air circulation.

It appeared that the little bunker was low because it was partially sunk into the ground. She found herself looking into a room from about two-thirds of the way up the wall. There was one man sitting at a huge console which appeared to be a combination of traffic control, radar, security suite, and communications stations. Typical of guards the universe over doing the graveyard shift, this one was lying in his chair with his feet up and appeared to be asleep.

‘Too good to be true?’ she asked silently.

‘Would you prefer cynicism or a psychological breakdown?’

The vent pushed upward on hinges, apparently secured only by a couple of pins which made almost no sound as they broke. She slipped silently to the floor and moved over to the man in the chair. ‘Can you access the communications system?’

‘There is a wireless interface. Hacking… What do I do when I get in?’

Aneka permitted herself a small smile: when he got in, not if. ‘See if there’s an FTL communicator. If there is, send a message to Winter with our location and tell her to bring Hell.’

‘There is. Transmission time to New Earth is around eight and a half hours. If they send a fast ship, you’ll still be looking at around forty-eight hours before it gets here.’

Aneka’s gaze swept the room and she spotted an interior door. Moving as silently as possible, she crossed to it and looked inside. She smiled. ‘I think that we should be able to arrange for a nice, friendly welcome for the troops when they arrive. Hunter is not going to know what hit him.’

~~~

The sound of voices alerted Aneka that someone was in the hut with Ella. ‘She’s not here. You wanted Aneka when you came back and she w-went swimming. Sh-she’ll be back soon I’m sh-sure.’

The suspicion that the big guy from earlier was back was confirmed as she heard him speaking. ‘I shouldn’t be out of barracks now, bitch. I don’t have time to wait. So you’ll have to do. Now spread them for me or you’ll spend the next two days in the stocks getting fucked in public.’

So that was the punishment for refusal. Aneka slipped through the curtains at the front of the building, making no sound. She knew where they both were from the heat signatures: Ella on the bed, the thug standing over her with a torch. In the darkness behind the man, Ella did not see Aneka moving closer until her assailant was suddenly pulled backward by his hair, the torch flying sideways.

‘What the fu–?!’ The exclamation cut off as Aneka swept a knife across his throat, left to right. She felt the edge scrape his spine briefly, and heard the gasp from Ella as blood sprayed out across the room from the severed arteries. Then she dumped the bleeding body onto the ground and watched it twitch, tossing a night-vision visor to Ella as she did so.

‘Get that dress off and those on. We’re sneaking out of here to a more defensible position.’ Ella was staring at the body, at the blood pooling around his neck in the light from the fallen torch. She had not yet noticed that the same blood was soaking into the front of her dress and Aneka decided she should not. Stepping forward, Aneka pulled Ella to her feet and then yanked the hem of her dress up. That done, she jammed the visor over Ella’s eyes, bent over to turn the torch off, and then grabbed Ella’s wrist to pull her out of the building.

‘Where are we going?’ Ella hissed as her brain kicked back into action. From somewhere, Aneka had found her leotard, boots, and leggings.

‘I found a bunker in the middle of the island,’ Aneka replied, her voice low. ‘It’s got the communications suite in it. I’ve sent a message to Winter, but we need to hole up for a while. Keep your voice low, volume and tone. High frequencies carry over other noise better than low frequencies.’

‘Oh,’ Ella said, not expecting a lesson in stealth while they were running for their lives. ‘And this bunker is the best place to hide? Surely they’ll know where to look for us?’

‘Oh, they’ll know. I’m really not planning on hiding much.’

‘You’re not?’ Ella’s tone was low, but plaintive.

‘No. I found the armoury, which is where they’d put our stuff. Well, my stuff. I think your stuff is in bits.’

‘You can’t hold off this number of soldiers with small arms,’ Ella glanced at Aneka, seeing the malicious grin on her face.

‘Oh, I’ve got enough to hold them off. Trust me.’

Ella trusted her friend, sure. She was just a little worried about how much of the island was going to be left afterward.

30.6.524 FSC.

The glow from Odanari’s orange sun was starting to light the parade ground as Aneka stepped onto the Plascrete surface. Ahead of her were the barracks huts, two of them, around fifty metres long and sufficiently dense that Aneka could not really see the heat signatures of the bodies within. Each building had a door at this end, and each door had a small window, and Aneka had a grenade launcher.

She had picked up two of the largest weapons she could find before leaving the bunker, and the auto-loading electromag grenade launcher with its twenty rounds of explosive goodness was going to be her opening gambit. An alarm call which the multiple rapists in the hut were not going to forget in a hurry. Well, the ones who lived would remember anyway. Lining up on the left-hand window, she fired, shifted her aim, and then fired again. A second later she heard shouting and then the first explosion.

The door of the left building burst open as the second grenade went off. Aneka pulled the trigger and the man coming through was hit in the chest with a forty-millimetre grenade. There were screams, more yelling. She emptied the launcher through the door and shattered window. Twenty seconds of chaos and she threw away the launcher and turned away from the barracks, heading back into the undergrowth to the spot where she had left her second heavy weapon.

She could hear voices behind her, but she did not hurry. She wanted them running after her. Ahead of her she spotted the bush she was looking for, just as she heard the voices behind her.

‘There! She’s over there!’

‘All right, bitch, you’re unarmed and…’ Aneka yanked a heavy, cylindrical weapon out of the bush and swung it around. It had five barrels to ensure adequate cooling, a thousand rounds of three-millimetre, needle-like ammunition, and a ludicrous rate of fire. She was really not that familiar with electromagnetic accelerator weapons, but it did not matter: the thing was a fire hose. ‘Gopi! She’s got a–’ The man was cut off, literally, as the mini-gun spoke, loudly.

FNb Admiral Banfry, New Earth Orbit

Captain Gibbons heard the chirp of his internal comms and frowned. Leaning across his desk, he tapped the pad which would put the call through. ‘Gibbons.’

‘Captain, this is Winter. I need you to get your ship underway immediately. Destination and associated data are being sent through to you now.’

Display windows opened on the Polyglass surface and Gibbons’ eyes flicked over them. ‘Odanari… And Jansen?’

The hint of anger in his voice did not go unnoticed. ‘Miss Jansen has uncovered a terrorist training centre. Possibly something else as well. I need you to get there as fast as your engines will take you and deploy troops. Make sure they know that there are non-combatants there. That includes several pregnant women and Miss Narrows. Winter out.’

The line went dead, a message flicking up to indicate that the connection had terminated. Gibbons growled under his breath, but orders were orders. He tapped the pad for internal comms. ‘Leeforth, I want us breaking orbit in forty minutes. Set a course for Odanari.’

The First Officer’s voice sounded back almost instantly. ‘You going on holiday, Captain?’

‘I wish. As soon as we’re underway, I want you and Commander Brod in my office.’

Odanari

‘It’s the Jansen women, sir.’ The Humanity First soldier who had landed the job of explaining what had happened to Charles Hunter was not happy about it. His eyes darted from Hunter to the woman near him with the kind of nervous look a man got when he felt the messenger might end up strangled with his own entrails. ‘She’s holed up in the bunker with Narrows.’

Hunter’s throat had the red shade to it that people who knew him had learned to recognise as a sign that they should be elsewhere. ‘A thousand-year-old woman and an archaeologist have taken over our primary operations centre and armoury? Is it too much to ask that you remove them?’

‘Sir… She used frag grenades on the barracks. We lost eleven men in there. Another fifteen when she opened up with a mini-gun. The minefield around the bunker is still active…’

Hunter turned sharply to where Andromeda Parry was cleaning her long fingernails with a combat knife. ‘Andromeda, would you be so kind as to demonstrate how to kill a couple of women?’

Pushing herself up from her position leaning against a desk, Parry smiled and unzipped the jumpsuit she was wearing. ‘Of course, Charles. It would be my considerable pleasure.’

~~~

Aneka sat in the doorway of the bunker watching the undergrowth about a hundred metres away. There were men in the bushes at the treeline. From their postures they were watching her with binoculars or some similar form of high-tech vision aid. Occasionally one of them would take a shot at her and then she would fire back. Unfortunately for them, they had to hit her dead on and she was behind cover since the steps behind the big, metal door sloped down, and she was using a grenade launcher. So far she was ahead by several bodies.

‘Why don’t they attack in force?’ Ella asked from the inner door at the bottom of the stairs. She had managed to find a T-shirt and a pair of shorts in a locker at the back of the armoury. The T-shirt was too small and the shorts were only held on by a belt, and the entire outfit was far less revealing than Ella was used to wearing, but at least she had clothes.

‘Hunter’s trying to build an army. I’ve killed… several of his prospective soldiers and we hold the bulk of their weapons. If they come in, they have to funnel through the gap in the minefield. It would be a shooting gallery and they know it.’ Something shifted in the undergrowth and she turned her head to look at it, frowning. ‘If they’re going to try something, they’ll come in the way I did, which is why there’s a rigged gas grenade in the air vent and you have a gas mask.’

Ella lifted her hands and looked down at the mask in one of them and the laser pistol in the other. The armoury was heavy on the Gauss weapons, but it had a few lasers and blasters. ‘You really think we can hold out until someone comes?’

‘If you conserve your water supply. You might go a little funny eating those survival rations for more than a couple of days. Last time I had to eat them for a week I developed an enormous craving for, well, real food actually. Put on two kilos before I got it under control.’

The redhead gave a nervous giggle. ‘Can’t have that. You won’t love me if I get fat.’

It was probably just a turn of phrase, ‘you won’t love me…’ Love? Aneka was not sure she had ever loved anyone who she was not related to, but if she had she had lost every last one of them a thousand years ago. And Ella was a woman. And was actually loving anyone such a great idea when you could lose them? Aneka had avoided long-term relationships in her own time because of her work, but now…

The something in the bushes moved again. ‘Ella, could you go back inside and shut the door? Something’s happening.’

‘What?’

‘I am not really sure, but there’s something moving with a purpose.’ She heard Ella moving back and the door closing, but her attention was on the heat signature moving out of the undergrowth and across the open grass. It was keeping low to the ground and moving slowly as though it was expecting to remain unseen even without cover. Aneka pulled the Gauss rifle beside her closer. The digital zoom on her eyes was not as good as the similar feature on her pistol, but she activated it, narrowing her field of view to the moving shape. With the multispectral enhancement turned off, the shape on the grass, suddenly very still, was almost impossible to make out. It was only knowing where it was that let her make out the outline of Andromeda Parry. Aneka took her hand from the rifle.

‘Ella?’ Aneka said over the comms connection she had through to the intercom in the control room.

‘Yes, Aneka? Figured out what’s out there?’

‘Andromeda, Hunter’s partner, but she’s… camouflaged. It’s like her skin’s changing to match the grass. Doesn’t look like a suit. I think she’s naked.’

‘Really? It’s not impossible, but it would mean… She’s probably not Human. A bioengineered life form. Some people call them bioroids, biological androids, or synthezoids, or artificial people, or… you get the picture. They use variant DNA, nanotechnology to form the structures. The normal rules don’t apply. She could have all sorts of weird tricks to her physiology and still look like a Jenlay.’

Aneka watched as Parry continued her slow, patient crawl toward the bunker. ‘Well, she thinks I can’t see her so I think I’ll let her get closer.’ A thought struck her and she grinned. ‘Huh, the leader of a Human-purist organisation is bumping uglies with a synthetic humanoid.’

Ella giggled. ‘Never heard that one. “Bumping uglies?”’

‘We had a lot more colourful euphemisms for sex when it was more of a taboo subject.’

‘Really?’

‘Maybe just different ones, but you’re more open about it so I’m guessing yes. The wild mamba, the horizontal tango, buttering the muffin, hiding the salami, doing the nasty, playing doctor. One of the marines I knew used to call it the “blanket hornpipe.”’

Ella giggled. ‘You should make sure Gillian gets this stuff down.’

‘I’ll mention it to her.’ Parry had made it to the outer bounds of the minefield. The entrance to the path between the mines was marked by a ‘Minefield!’ sign and the camouflaged figure was about a metre from it, ten metres from Aneka, give or take. Pulling the rifle around, Aneka squeezed off a burst at the post, the thin needles shredding it; Parry flinched as splinters of wood hit her bare skin.

‘Hey, Parry,’ Aneka called out. ‘If you turn around now, I won’t shoot you in the back.’

Parry’s skin shifted back to normal colour and she moved into a crouch. ‘You’re good, Jansen. No one’s ever spotted me before. Out of professional courtesy, if you give up now I won’t give your little friend to the troops.’

‘Seriously? That’s your play? I have your communications centre and your arsenal, and you’re going to suggest I give up to avoid you hurting my friend?’

‘Your choice.’ Parry moved, bolting for the gap in the mines. Aneka took a fraction of a second to consider, which seemed like minutes to her accelerated mind. One shot would possibly take Parry down, but she was an unknown quantity and the rifle fired very small-calibre rounds. At this range, a second shot was unlikely to make it out of the barrel and Aneka would be left holding a useless weapon. She pushed the gun aside and picked up her knife.

Parry was going for a body slam, a full-on charge, and she dipped her shoulder at the last instant to drive it into Aneka’s chest. Aneka’s knife swung in as she did so, coming in from the side and driving in under the ribs. She saw the artificial woman’s eyes widen just before her shoulder hit, the impact carrying them both back into the bunker to tumble down the stairs. Aneka hit the concrete floor first with Parry on top, but Aneka could tell that that was not going to be a problem.

White blood spattered Aneka’s face as Parry opened her mouth. A long, almost snake-like tongue extended out and Aneka did nothing as it curled around her neck. There was no pressure. Aneka felt Parry’s hands clench on her biceps, and then the light went out in her eyes.

The inner door burst open and Ella let out a gasp as she saw Parry’s crumpled body with Aneka’s dagger sticking out of her side. Aneka could not wait for Ella to sort out her shock; she thrust Parry’s body off her, rolled over, and bolted for the stairs.

Sure enough, five Humanity First soldiers were charging toward the bunker, using Parry’s assault to rush them. Aneka grabbed her rifle, dropped full length onto the grass, and fired. The foremost member of the team stumbled and fell as his chest was opened up like a cantaloupe. She flicked the rifle over to full-auto and swept it across the squad’s path. Two of them fell, their legs cut from under them. The last two turned and ran. Aneka planted a burst of needles in their backs, the last of them almost making it to cover before he fell.

‘Her b-blood,’ Ella said at the bottom of the stairs. ‘It’s a… a high-capacity oxygen transport.’

‘Cute. Seen her tongue? It’s got to be useful for close combat, but I can’t help but feel it’s mostly there so she gives fantastic head.’

‘There’s a commercial bioroid called a Succubus model that has that, so… yeah.’

‘Succubus model… right. When it gets dark, I’m going to go take care of Hunter.’

There was a slight pause. ‘Is that wise? What if they come here while you’re out? I’m not a soldier, you know?’

‘They won’t. It’ll be dark and they’ll be huddling in a corner praying the nasty lady with the big guns doesn’t come for them.’ Aneka switched to her grenade launcher and fired at an infrared signature on the edge of the tree line. There was a scream which finished in a gurgle just after the detonation. ‘Assuming there’s any of them left to come after you, of course.’

~~~

Charles Hunter bolted awake as Parry’s body thudded onto the foot of his bed. He barely spared her a glance, however, and that more than anything else meant he had to die. Instead, he looked up at Aneka, his eyes narrowing.

‘I thought you’d come here,’ he said. ‘When Andromeda didn’t come back, I knew she was dead, and that you’d come after me.’

‘I know you did,’ Aneka replied. ‘Don’t expect your guards to be coming in to save your arse.’

‘You killed all five?’

Aneka smiled. ‘Seven. You really did think I was coming. You can’t have many left. When the Navy gets here, they’re going to be a bit bored.’

‘The Navy… Of course, you’ve had the communications suite for a while, you’ll be thinking that you got through to them. All communications from here go through the mainland. They informed me as soon as you sent your message.’

Aneka smiled at him. ‘Well, if you’re telling the truth I’d need to slaughter every last one of you, and I’ll get right on that. However, I sent the message before picking Ella up from the hut. If you’d been told about it, you’d have intercepted us. Care to change your story before I kill you and every other male on the island?’

He moved, pulling a heavy-looking pistol from under the second pillow on his bed. She threw her left arm up in front of her face as he fired. Messages flashed across her vision field. Electron beam impact. Dermal layer penetrated. Internal damage. Function unimpaired. Then she heard Hunter gasp and used his surprise to dart forward and grab his wrist, pulling the gun aside and locking his arm. He let out a cry of pain, but it was still his expression of shock which was most evident.

Aneka glanced at her left arm. Part of the skin had been burned away to reveal the armour layer beneath. It was kind of pretty: the light glinted off the fibres as though it was some sort of cloth made from diamonds. She looked back at Hunter. ‘Huh, yeah. Joke’s on you really. The Xinti replaced my body with a synthetic one. They were nothing but digital minds in a manufactured shell, and that’s what they did to me. You wanted a Human from before all these genetic changes. You got a robot.’

‘You… you’re… an abomination!’

‘That makes two of us then,’ she replied. Then she straightened the fingers of her free hand and slammed them into his throat. He blacked out almost instantly from the shock, but she could hear his breath rattling in his throat. ‘Still alive,’ she muttered and she reached toward him, focussing on his throat, fingers spread. The force generator had a setting she had not mentioned to anyone else: an oscillating graviton field formed briefly within Hunter’s neck crushing his windpipe. He coughed once, blood flecking his lips, and then he lay still.

2.7.524 FSC.

‘I’m showing a missile battery near the landing platform on the north-west side, but I’m seeing no radar emissions at all, not even tracking radar.’ The sensor officer of the assault shuttle watched his displays nervously. The briefing had stated that there were well-armed terrorists on the island they were two minutes away from and, frankly, the entire assault team was on a hair trigger. They had trained for this over and over again, but actually doing it was another matter.

‘All right,’ Commander Brod said, ‘we drop into that clearing in the centre of the island. Set us a course for insertion.’ He shifted in his harness, tapping a pad on the multi-display rig in front of him. ‘Captain, we’re going in.’

Gibbons’ voice sounded over Brod’s headset. ‘Any sign of resistance?’

‘So far it looks like the entire island is dead…’

‘Picking up infrared signatures in the housing structures around the outer edge,’ the sensor officer announced. ‘All immobile.’

‘We’ve got warm bodies,’ Brod said, ‘but if they’re aware of us, they’re not doing anything about it.’

‘Take all due precautions, Commander,’ Gibbons said. ‘Remember, we have non-combatants in there.’

‘Confirmed. Brod out.’ The commander disengaged his harness and moved toward the rear of the shuttle where his team was waiting. Thirty men and women in combat suits with ducted-turbofan drop packs, the same gear as Brod was wearing, all locked into stabilising brackets on the sides of the troop compartment. ‘Disengage locks and prepare for deployment. I want a standard defensive drop, keep it tight, and check your targets. There are civilians down there.’

The rear ramp lowered as the troops disconnected from the ship. The red light over the door began to flash and they prepped for disembarkation; the twin turbofan system on their backs kicked into life and each of them readied their laser rifle. The light went green and they charged out into the air, five hundred metres over the island.

There was no gunfire from below, no sign of anyone responding to their arrival. The shuttle circled slowly above them as they dropped, its underside turret turning to cover the ground below with its heavy laser and rotary cannon. It was not needed. The platoon landed without incident, dropping their flight packs and lowering into watchful crouches with weapons and multispectral sensor arrays scanning the undergrowth.

‘I’m picking up no comms traffic,’ the sensor officer announced over their encrypted field radios. ‘There appears to be no response at all.’

‘All right,’ Brod said. ‘We’ve got the layout. Squad One, you’re with me. We’ll circle to the beach and search the houses. Squad Two, head straight for the barracks buildings. Squad Three, take that bunker. Move.’

Brod had barely made it into the tree line when he heard Squad Three’s leader over the radio. ‘Sir, we’ve secured the bunker. The doors were wide open and there’s no one here. There is an armoury stocked up with some pretty heavy weapons, and a couple of bodies. Whatever happened here, we missed it.’

‘Okay, sweep south and circle around to the east once you’ve hit the beach.’

‘Acknowledged.’

‘Sir?’ Squad Two’s leader this time. ‘We’ve reached the barracks. Looks like grenades, some small arms fire. There’s nothing here but bodies.’

Brod frowned. What the Hell had happened here? ‘Continue north to the larger house.’

‘Acknowledged. Sir, what happened to these people? If I didn’t know better, I’d think we’d already been here.’

‘No point in speculating. Continue the search.’

Ahead of Brod’s squad, the rear of a wooden beach hut appeared through the trees. It was not large, but big enough to contain a couple of rooms. Brod could make out a heat signature, probably lying down, though the thick wood made it hard to be sure exactly what he was seeing. He signalled for them to move forward and they went by fireteam, leap-frogging forward toward the back wall of the hut.

It was as Brod reached the corner of the building that they heard the scream. It was female, definitely, and coming from inside the hut. ‘Move!’ Brod snapped, turning the corner himself as his people rushed forward. The front of the hut seemed to be just a bank of light curtains. Brod came around to the front of the hut and saw his men holding the fabric open and just… standing there looking surprised. Brod pulled a curtain aside and looked in, just in time to see a tall, tanned, white-haired woman lifting her head from between the legs of a shorter redhead.

Aneka licked her lips and wiped at the corners of her mouth with a hand. ‘I’m glad you people could join us,’ she said. ‘Beach holidays are cool, but I’ll get bored and kill people if I have to sunbathe much more.’

FNb Admiral Banfry

‘We’ve taken seven men into custody,’ Gibbons said, ‘and we’ve got thirty women in the infirmary and the guest quarters. We put the bodies…’ His gaze moved across his desk to where Aneka was sitting, Ella beside her. ‘...and there were a lot of bodies, in one of the storage holds.’

Winter nodded. ‘Hunter?’ The spy mistress had arrived a couple of hours after the island had been evacuated of non-combatants, with an entourage of technicians and security specialists.

‘Is one of the bodies. So is Parry. Turns out she was a synthetic. Techs say she’s a Valkyrie, a combat variant of a Succubus model.’

‘Did you have to kill him, Miss Jansen?’ She did not sound exactly disappointed about it.

‘No,’ Aneka replied, ‘but I really wanted to.’

‘Yes, well, I can understand that. How are you, Miss Narrows?’

‘I’m… okay, mostly. I’ll have to put up with having a period this month, I hope. The doctors are saying they can’t be sure I won’t end up pregnant for another few days.’ She paused. ‘And I’m not anxious to have sex with a man any time soon.’

‘We’ve got twenty-five pregnancies,’ Gibbons put in. ‘All the women are going to need counselling. Some of them want the babies gone, others bought into Hunter’s propaganda and want to raise good little soldiers for Humanity.’

‘You can’t get rid of the unwanted pregnancies?’ Aneka asked. ‘Some of them didn’t look far gone.’ Ella gave her a horrified look. ‘What?’

‘Abortion is illegal, Miss Jansen,’ Winter explained. ‘Well, under extreme circumstances the procedure is allowed to save the life of the mother, but otherwise it’s classed as murder. When everyone can voluntarily control their reproduction, it’s considered your problem if you’re stupid enough to get pregnant by accident.’ Aneka opened her mouth to speak, but Winter went on. ‘I understand that some of these women have been given drugs to remove their volition, but the law still stands. We can arrange adoption where the child isn’t wanted.’

‘You had abortion back then?’ Ella asked, still looking shocked.

‘Depended on local law, but yes,’ Aneka replied. ‘We didn’t have perfect contraception, but we did have lousy sex education and a lot of stupid people. Though even some of the stricter states would grant permission in the case of rape, which is essentially the situation here.’

‘Very well,’ Winter said, bringing the morality discussion to a close, ‘the situation seems to be contained for now. Captain, if you would make haste back to New Earth we’ll continue the debriefings there. I want to get my team going over Hunter’s operation and I’m sure Miss Jansen and Miss Narrows are keen to be back in their own home.’

‘Yeah,’ Ella said, ‘just a little.’

Part Seven: Facilitating Change

Tristar Township, New Earth, 6.7.524 FSC.

The entire crew of the Garnet Hyde had decided they wanted physical proof that Aneka and Ella were okay, so Gillian was hosting what amounted to a pool party. Aneka was pretty sure that it would have involved more sex if everyone was not tip-toeing around Ella. As it was, there were instances where couples would vanish for a while and return later looking satisfied. Ella was quietly ignoring that, and Aneka thought she was a little annoyed that people were behaving differently because of what had happened to her.

Only Shannon seemed concerned about Aneka’s feelings on her recent ordeal. The telepath had expressed that concern quite openly. If she had still been Human, Aneka was sure she would have been almost as traumatised as Ella, but the body she had given over to saving her friend from too much attention was not, quite, hers. She was thankful she did not dream, however; not the same way normal Humans did anyway.

It was when Monkey sank gingerly into the hot tub opposite Aneka and Ella wearing swimming trunks that Ella finally snapped. ‘Good grief! Why is everyone acting like I’ll break if I see a naked man? Don’t make me fuck someone to make you think I’m over it.’

There was total silence for a little over a second, and then Aneka started giggling and Ella punched her in the shoulder. ‘What? I’ve been expecting an outburst like that for the last hour. Get your trunks off, Monkey, before she enacts her threat.’

Making shuffling motions to do as requested, the young man gave Aneka a slightly timid grin. ‘But, I’m closest so if she were to do it, I’d probably be the fuckee. Is that really an incentive to comply?’

Aneka turned to Ella. ‘He does have a point. That wasn’t a well thought-out ultimatum.’

Ella glowered at her. ‘Ah… eat me!’

Aneka’s lips twitched and, silently, she sank beneath the water. A second later Ella let out a squeak.

Gillian, sitting between Ella and her son, smiled. ‘I believe, my dear Ella, that you’re forgetting that she doesn’t need to breathe.’

‘Y-yes… you’re r-right… I hadn’t th-thought of that either.’ Her head rolled back onto the decking the pool was sunk into.

‘She’s clearly not worried about sex,’ Shannon commented.

‘Just sex with men,’ Gillian replied, ‘and she has a three-step plan to get over it.’

‘I thought these plans had to have at least five steps?’ Monkey said.

‘Well, hers has three. Step one is waiting for the effects of the Ovanimax to wear off, just in case. That also gives her a break period where she feels no pressure. Then she’s going to initiate something with her neighbours and Aneka, lots of female contact along with a male.’

‘That sounds fairly considered,’ Shannon said. ‘Somewhat akin to the mechanisms they use to desensitise people with phobias. What’s step three?’

‘Orgy.’

Shannon burst into a fit of giggles. ‘That’s so Ella, but I’m not sure that’s a great idea.’

‘I’m quite sure Aneka will make sure she takes her time about it. The woman has a remarkably solid head on her shoulders for someone dumped into this century with no warning. Perhaps because she was…’ She was interrupted by Ella having a rather noisy, and very splashy, orgasm. Aneka emerged from beneath the water, smirking.

‘If I say that to you,’ Monkey said as she slipped back onto the bench beside Ella, ‘would I get the same treatment.’

‘Considering that it’d mean you actually wanted me to do something,’ Aneka replied, ‘I probably would.’

‘Huh, yeah… Hadn’t thought of it like that.’ He grinned. ‘Well, don’t cos it’d sound like I was desperate, but I think I’m over that. I’m not going to get myself an android sex doll, but… Well, you’re different. You’re Jenlay… well, Human. Just Human in a shell.’

‘Thanks. Hunter called me an abomination when he found out what I was. At least I’ve got someone else thinking I’m normal.’

‘You’re not an abomination,’ Ella said, her head still rolled back. ‘You’re a fucking angel.’

Aneka laughed. ‘I’m surprised that word still exists. Considering that Christianity doesn’t seem to exist.’

‘A repurposed word,’ Gillian explained. ‘The Torem believe that Vashma manifests itself occasionally in the form of messenger beings, entities of divine grace. They have their own word for them, but we call them angels. No one has ever had unequivocal evidence that they exist.’

‘Sounds like an angel,’ Aneka agreed. ‘I’m not one.’

‘I’m sticking to my opinion,’ Ella said, finally lifting her head. ‘I’m also going to be more careful about my insults.’

‘Always good advice,’ Drake said. He and Bashford were sitting at a table nearby, under a large, canvas sunshade. Aneka had absently noted that they were the only remaining members of the crew she thought of by their surnames, though technically Bashford was ‘Bash’ to most people, and everyone called Drake ‘Drake’ because he did not like his first name. They were friends now, all of them. She had friends here, friends who cared about her. ‘And for the record,’ Drake added, ‘Hunter was wrong. So you’ve got a cybernetic body. Who cares? You’re as… Human as anyone here. And if you hadn’t had that body a lot of us would be dead about now. Oddly, I think what really convinced me you were really Jenlay was the sex. Robots… just don’t come like that.’

Aneka laughed, but it was nice to hear. Her ego needed a little boosting. ‘What are you drinking, Bash?’ was what she said.

‘Beer,’ he replied. ‘I brew it myself.’

Aneka’s eyes narrowed and she pulled herself out of the tub to wander over. ‘Really? Could I try it?’ He handed her the glass, though his eyes were watching her body, which was also an ego boost. She took a careful sip. ‘Holy crap! That tastes like beer! A bitter. You realise this is the first drink anyone’s given me that tastes the way it’s supposed to?’

Bashford chuckled. ‘I brought a case over with me and I do a couple of other brews. I’ve found very few people who actually like the stuff.’

Aneka handed his glass back and started for the kitchen. ‘Taste of home, here I come.’

‘You’ve made a happy woman, Bash,’ Gillian commented.

‘Looks like it. I’m happy someone other than me thinks it’s drinkable.’

‘Bash,’ Aneka called over her shoulder, ‘beer is what God invented wheat and water for.’

~~~

‘So what happens next?’ Aneka asked as they sat around in the lounge that evening. Drake and Shannon had gone off not long after dark, despite Gillian’s protests that she had plenty of space to put them up for the night. Now Ella was lying with her head on Aneka’s shoulder, Gillian was sitting in Bash’s lap with no sign of embarrassment on either side, and Monkey was quietly ignoring them all since he did not have a girl to be cute with.

‘Back to work,’ Gillian said, ‘assuming you’re both up to it.’

‘I am,’ Ella replied, interrupting the soft kissing of Aneka’s neck briefly to do so.

‘And I’d be up to work the day after I stopped a nuclear missile with my face,’ Aneka added.

Gillian chuckled, and Bash and Monkey laughed. ‘I wouldn’t recommend that,’ Gillian said. ‘Your chassis is not that resilient. Oh! I forgot. While you two were having your little desert island holiday, I got a mail through from the Administration. The Xinti ship we found Aneka on will be available for analysis at the start of next month. They want our team to lead the project.’ She glanced over at Aneka, her eyes narrowing. ‘I think I detected Winter’s hand in the order. This is going to be a heavy technology mission and she’s put a field archaeologist in charge.’

‘Making the assumption that you’re right,’ Aneka replied, ‘and that she did have a hand in this, do you really believe Winter is the kind of woman who would put you in that position if she thought someone else would be better?’

‘Ah, well, no. I simply meant that there are more proficient administrators for–’

‘So she thinks subject knowledge needs to have higher authority than logistics and procedure. And you could bet your salary that that decision was made on cold logic.’

‘You think Winter’s cold?’ Ella mumbled, and then seemed to consider what she had just said. ‘You know what I mean.’

Aneka considered it for a few seconds. ‘I think she makes business decisions based on a careful, logical, cold analysis of the situation. I currently don’t have an opinion on her personal demeanour.’

‘Not being able to get drunk does amazing things for your ability to use long words,’ Monkey commented.

Aneka grunted. ‘I’ll add that to my list of things I need to figure out. Being pleasantly pished would be kind of nice.’

‘Pished is good,’ Ella mumbled. ‘I like pished.’

‘What’s this analysis of my wreck going to involve?’

‘A few months in space,’ Gillian replied. ‘They’ve parked the ship in orbit around the largest moon of Joval Seven and they’re building a small station to connect it to the Hyde and provide some additional laboratory space.’

‘It’ll be like a normal expedition, but closer to home,’ Bashford added. ‘There’ll be a lot of zero-G work, but we won’t have to sleep in free fall. We can drop down to the moon for supplies and recreation. There’s an outpost there used for low-gravity research, some commercial interests, and a military training post.’

‘There’s also an enclave of Torem there,’ Gillian went on.

‘You can get your space legs and meet more aliens,’ Monkey said.

‘Sounds like it’ll be interesting at least,’ Aneka commented, though her mind was really more on Ella’s tongue, which was tracing along the skin of her neck under her ear. The little redhead had been much more intimate, delicate, gentle about her sexual overtures since coming back from the island. It was probably a sign that she was a little more disturbed than she claimed to be, but Aneka liked it.

‘Between the Xinti archives and that ship,’ Gillian said, ‘I’m hoping to find out more about them than we’ve ever previously known. Abraham will be there to look at the technology. He thinks he may be able to get the ship’s computer up and running, perhaps some of the other equipment. Yes, I think it could be very interesting.’ She looked across as Aneka let out a small whimper. ‘Perhaps you should take Ella somewhere private?’

‘We’re good,’ Ella replied as her hand slid between Aneka’s legs. ‘Besides, I owe her one.’

University of New Earth, 9.7.524 FSC.

Aneka walked out across the atrium and headed for the coffee shop. It was mid-morning and she had needed the break from trying to discuss what she knew of the economics of Old Earth, so she had offered to get the coffee in.

There was a queue, but that did not bother her. She had discovered that she had more patience lately, possibly due to the fact that she could quietly read behind her eyes while she waited for things. Today she was reading through various Xinti documents about their military structure. They had operated a three caste structure: warriors, scientists, and administrators. At the time Aneka was taken, the Science caste was basically controlling things and the Warriors had done little but practise. It was not unlike the Federal Navy now.

‘Is the coffee here any good?’

Aneka turned at the voice behind her to find Winter standing there in a short-skirted suit with a sheer blouse and lightweight jacket. ‘It’s about as good as any of the coffee you have these days. A little too bitter for my taste, but it’s something to drink.’

‘I need to talk to you when you’ve got your drinks. Join me when you’re done.’ She turned and walked off to one of the small tables at the side of the shop, perching on a half-stool to wait.

Aneka joined her a few minutes later, putting her plastic tray of cups down on the table and perching opposite the spy mistress. ‘I got you some water. I remember you said coffee made you hyper.’ She tapped the cup nearest to Winter and the woman smiled, lifting it free. ‘I also figured you didn’t want to discuss grinds and bean types.’

‘No.’ However, she took a sip of her water before continuing. ‘You’ve proven yourself a valuable asset since your awakening. Jenlay are much better social creatures than they once were, you see? The antisocial traits with genetic origins have been eliminated from many. Social engineering during education works to weed out learned behaviours. We have had little in the way of conflict for hundreds of years.’

‘That sounds like a good thing.’

‘It is. It would be even better if there were no circumstances where a… less perfect solution is required. Hunter, the Knights of the Void… They are not the only ones and I need people like you to make sure they don’t destroy everything we’ve built.’

Aneka frowned at her. ‘You’re offering me a job? You want, what? An assassin?’

‘Trouble-shooter.’

‘Trouble-shooter who kills people.’

‘When required.’

Aneka looked up at the ceiling for a second, and then back at Winter. ‘When I… Well, when I died, I was a soldier. I killed people for a living, but I was trying to make my living rescuing people instead. I’m good at killing, but I don’t need to like it. I woke up a different person in a different world. A better world. I’ve got a chance to be something else here. I’m a facilitator and next month I’m going to be helping to find out how the ship I was found in ticked. It’s constructive instead of destructive.’

Winter nodded. ‘I can understand that point of view.’

‘Good. I’ve no doubt that if you have something you think only I could do, you’ll ask, and come up with a way to make me think I should do it. But I don’t want that to be my life.’

‘I can live with an arrangement like that.’

Aneka gave her a smile and slipped off her stool. ‘Enjoy your drink,’ she said, and then she picked up her tray and started for the door.

Outside, the Sun was shining and a light breeze was somehow making its way down to the atrium floor to keep the heat at bay. Yes, it was a new, better world she had found herself in. She had a new body which she was starting to really think of as her own. She had friends and a place in the society she had found herself in. There was steel and super-high-tech components under her engineered, nanotech-enhanced skin, but there was also Aneka Jansen in there, and Aneka Jansen had found a new home.

###

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

Find them here: http://amazon.com/author/niallteasdale

The Thaumatology Series

Thaumatology 101

Demon’s Moon

Legacy

Dragon’s Blood

Disturbia

Hammer of Witches

Eagle’s Shadow

Ancient

Dragonfall

The Other Side of Hell

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll

Vengeance

Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study

Tales from the Dubh Linn

The Aneka Jansen Books

Steel Beneath The Skin

The Cold Steel Mind

Steel Heart

The Winter War

The Greatest Heights of Honour

The Lowest Depths of Shame

The Ultrahuman Books

Ugly

Table of Contents

Part One: Aneka

Part Two: Where Men Once Walked

Part Three: On the Edge

Part Four: Terra Nova

Part Five: Plus ça Change

Part Six: Humanity

Part Seven: Facilitating Change