Aneka Jansen 6: The Lowest Depths of Shame

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘We received a message from Captain Tasker,’ Winter went on. ‘She indicates that they believe the nuclear explosions on Beryum were not the result of Herosian action. She further stated that Captain Gibbons is worried about the same thing.’

  ‘I knew he wouldn’t be in on this,’ Monkey muttered.

  ‘They have been triaging patients,’ War went on. ‘The plan is to continue to New Earth with those who need more extensive treatment than Dokar can provide. By our estimate, the Hand will reach New Earth in twenty-four days. The rest of the fleet is likely to leave tomorrow, arriving on the twenty-sixth of next month.’

  ‘I need to be there,’ Abby said, sounding resigned. ‘This is going to blow up and I need to be there.’

  ‘If we leave tomorrow,’ Drake said, ‘it’ll be… the thirteenth of the ninth. The Hand will have arrived, but we’ll be there before the rest of them.’

  ‘We need to go back anyway,’ Gillian said. ‘I’m sure we all have things we would like to bring back here. I should do something about my house. We should officially resign from the university, if there’s an administrative body left to give our resignations to.’

  ‘We’ll start prepping the Hyde,’ Drake said.

  ‘Aneka,’ War said, as everyone started to leave, ‘if you’re leaving, I think there are some things you should be acquainted with.’

  Aneka looked at the Amazon-like figure, her brow furrowing. If War wanted to show her something, it was likely to be explosive.

  ~~~

  War placed a heavy, metal case on the table and pointed to it. ‘It’s keyed to you,’ she said.

  Inside was a lot of foamed padding with what looked a lot like magazines for her new pistols in it, but the rounds were a lot larger than the needles it usually fired. Aneka pulled one out and examined it. Stencilled onto the case was the word ‘Plasma.’

  ‘A plasma warhead?’ Aneka asked. ‘From a pistol? From one of my pistols?’

  ‘Your weapons can fire these, yes. You get five rounds per magazine instead of five hundred, but they have utility under specific circumstances. There are short-range radio jamming rounds, more use for distraction than anything else. High-explosive, smart-forged warheads for anti-armour work. And there is this.’ She pulled one of the magazines out. The underside of it was painted red, which seemed like a bad sign, and the bullets themselves looked a little different. ‘These have a range of five thousand metres, multi-spectral passive homing, and a small reactionless pulse drive powers them after launch.’

  ‘The normal rounds cap out about fifteen hundred,’ Aneka commented.

  ‘These need the extra range. The warhead is one hundred nanograms of antimatter.’

  Aneka blinked. ‘What the fuck am I going to need that for?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ War replied. ‘I built them for the situation I can’t think of where you would.’

  ~~~

  ‘What’s the loadout?’ Aneka asked as she fell into step beside Drake.

  ‘Five defence drones, five transport,’ the Captain replied. ‘We’re not there for science, but I… don’t want to take that ship to New Earth without some weaponry on board. We’re taking Gwy too.’

  ‘I heard. She made a point of messaging me to indicate that she was glad you had said she was to be aboard since she felt arguing about it would have made her seem… presumptuous.’

  Drake chuckled. ‘She can carry cargo up to the Hyde if nothing else. Personally, I don’t want to think we’ll need any of the weaponry we’re taking along, but…’

  ‘Yeah,’ Aneka said, ‘I can hear the trumpets too.’

  Part Three: The Army of Sheep

  Amethyst Hyde, 30.8.530 FSC.

  Aneka had one of her pistols in pieces on the table in their cabin. Ella watched her examining each component before carefully placing it with the others. She had been doing it for thirty minutes.

  ‘In case you’re wondering,’ Aneka said just as Ella opened her mouth, ‘I wanted to know what the insides look like in a nice, calm environment, in case I have to strip it down in a less calm one.’

  ‘Oh… That makes sense, I suppose.’

  ‘Also, it occupies my mind quite thoroughly and stops me thinking about what’s going to happen when we get to New Earth. Occupying my mind is getting harder than it used to and this is very detailed work.’

  ‘I know the feeling, and I didn’t get my whole mind upgraded. Do you think it’ll be bad?’

  Aneka sighed and began to reassemble her pistol. ‘The Xinti military, the Warrior caste, was sidelined for centuries because there was no one to fight. When they finally got to see battle again, they liked it so much they started a war which ended up destroying them. Japan before the war… It’s not quite the same, but they had a concept of militarising the whole of society. Once they had what they saw as an effective army, they had to go do something with it. I think the same sort of thing is happening with the Jenlay. The military is feeling its oats, people can see profit, and they think they have the upper hand when it comes to the Herosians.’

  ‘So… bad.’

  ‘Probably. Let me get this finished and I’ll take your mind off it. In the meantime, just remember that Dillon has a new back and he’s bound to want to try it out.’

  Ella smiled. ‘Oh, yeah… That’s something to look forward to.’

  Aneka smiled back. But she could tell Ella was forcing it.

  BC-101 Hand of God.

  ‘BC One-zero-one Hand of God to New Earth Control.’ Tasker listened to the communications officer attempting to contact flight control. He had tried twice and got no immediate response. That was a little odd.

  ‘Hand of God, this is New Earth Control. We’ve been expecting you. Please proceed to Corax orbit.’

  Tasker flashed her orders to her subordinate as a text message and he responded. ‘New Earth Control, we have seriously injured civilians aboard, they need…’

  ‘An orbital reception and treatment facility has been constructed for your arrival, Hand of God. Please proceed to Corax orbit for docking and patient transfer.’

  The ship’s course adjusted smoothly to the new heading as the comms officer replied, ‘New Earth Control, acknowledged. Hand of God out.’

  Tasker sat back in her chair and frowned. It made enough sense that she was not going to argue it. Orbital transfer to a custom facility would be faster and safer. It just felt wrong. She rechecked the message they had received immediately after warp exit: Abigail, their Ambassador, was returning aboard a new ship. She would be arriving in fourteen days.

  ‘It’s going to be a long fourteen days,’ Tasker muttered.

  New Earth, 1.9.530 FSC.

  ‘What exactly is the delay, Pierce?’ Jackson Elroy asked the screen in front of him. ‘I wish to visit the refugees from Beryum. They have arrived and been placed in this hospital facility you insisted was necessary. Why am I being told that I cannot now go there for “security reasons?”’

  ‘We need to vet them,’ Pierce replied. ‘Any of them could be working for the Herosians and until we’re sure they aren’t I can’t, in all conscience, allow you up there.’

  ‘The severely wounded people who have been on a secure, Old Earth ship for several weeks, may be Herosian agents?’

  ‘It cannot be ruled out. This Captain Tasker is being difficult as well. We want to go aboard to ensure that their ship hasn’t been sabotaged…’

  ‘Please don’t take me for a fool, Pierce,’ Elroy snapped.

  Pierce coughed and then rallied. ‘Until everyone brought in on the Hand has been checked, we are not allowing any non-military people up there, especially not high-ranking ones.’

  ‘Do your vetting quickly, please,’ Elroy replied and then cut off the connection. He looked across his desk. ‘Have you spoken to Captain Tasker?’

  ‘Not personally,’ Truelove replied. ‘She has been spoken to. She is a little concerned over the situation. There are a greater number of naval vessels in position around the Ha
nd than she would like. The Navy says that it’s simply part of the martialling for the war effort and, unfortunately, Corax is a primary military facility…’

  ‘So it works as a cover.’ Elroy looked disgusted. ‘Do they want us at war with Old Earth too?’

  ‘No, I think they’re just ensuring that no one from Beryum who might have a different view of things gets to talk to anyone. I think that’s the reason for the station at Corax.’

  ‘I’d reached that conclusion myself, especially given that they won’t let anyone else go up there.’

  Truelove nodded. ‘They’ve quietly moved all “non-essential” staff off the moon. That means only military personnel and the people from a number of munitions contractors and suppliers who have offices there are left.’

  ‘You’re looking into those companies.’

  Truelove smiled. ‘I’m not. I’m a member of the FSA reporting to Admiral Pierce. They are being looked into, however.’

  Elroy’s eyes narrowed slightly. ‘Good. I wonder if Pierce can come up with a security reason for me to avoid the Hand of God.’

  ‘I’m sure he can try, sir,’ Truelove replied.

  BC-101 Hand of God.

  ‘Security situation?’ Tasker asked.

  Technically her XO, a man named Lionel Morrison who she thought was a little too serious but a very good officer, did not need to give a report. He could have sent it via the ship’s internal networks and Tasker could have read it via her implant. Even Yrimtan had viewed that level of disconnection a bad thing. Personal contact cemented relationships, and relationships built the foundations of a working organisation. So Morrison gave her his report, even if she could read the details later.

  ‘The ship is secure,’ he said. ‘We’re picking up what I’d consider an abnormally high level of active sensor activity, but the hull and our ECM systems are blocking it. Passives are unlikely to get anything.’

  Tasker nodded. ‘It’s irritating, but it’s not unexpected. We have better ships, and they want to know what we’ve got.’

  Morrison returned the nod. ‘Flight crew have had to warn two Jenlay vessels that their flight paths were too close to our hull. Both corrected course immediately, but I don’t believe their pilots are that bad.’

  ‘That’s actually not a bet I’d be willing to back you up on. Some of their pilots are damn good, but I think most of those are currently somewhere between here and Dokar. Still, twice is coincidence. If we get a third instance, I’ll put a complaint through to their command. Safety notice.’

  The executive officer actually let a slight grin form. ‘That’s an elegant solution, Captain. Was there anything else?’

  A message flicked up in Tasker’s vision field and she scanned it. ‘Seems that Senator Elroy would like to pay us a visit. I trust him, but make sure the internal security grid is fully operational.’

  ‘Of course, Captain. Honour guard?’

  ‘Just for the welcome, but make sure the ECM suite is active when he’s aboard. Fully active.’

  Gwy, 2.9.530 FSC.

  Aneka sat in Gwy’s flight chair surrounded by the hangar bay of the Amethyst Hyde. Of course, technically, she was surrounded by an image of the hangar bay, but the feed, direct into her internal network via fibre-optic cable, was sufficiently real that she found herself stopping her simulated breathing.

  ‘The transition is a lot faster, and smoother,’ she said. ‘The extra bandwidth really makes a difference.’

  Gwy’s obsidian avatar appeared beside her. ‘Thank you, Aneka. I have been practising a little to improve performance, but the additional speed does help a lot.’

  Aneka looked around at the room, or the only feature of the room still visible, which was the chair she was sitting in with its twin control sticks mounted on the arms. She had learned to fly using this kind of multi-function directional control system so that was how Gwy emulated the flight controls for her. Shannon and Drake used different systems to fly the old Hyde, less intuitive, more reliant on the computers to perform the precise power and direction controls that were needed. She assumed they used an emulation of the same to fly the new Hyde, but…

  ‘Why do I actually need this chair?’ she asked, almost to herself.

  ‘To sit in?’ Gwy suggested.

  ‘Ha ha. No, I mean, I fly you like I’d fly the Delta…’ There was a stab of pain somewhere at the thought of the Delta Brigantia and its crew, now dead. ‘Like I’d have flown a conventional ship. You’re wired into my electronic nervous system. I think it, you do it. So why do I need the chair?’

  Gwy beamed, clapping her hands like a giddy schoolgirl. ‘Oh wonderful! You’ll need a software patch, but I’ve got it in my systems. I’m negotiating with Al to load it now. You don’t need the chair, but Speaker and War thought you should work that out for yourself. Aggy says that it was the first thing Shannon asked. Captain Drake appears to prefer the old system. He tried doing it without, but he says he’s uncomfortable with it.’

  ‘I’m not sure how I’ll like it, but let’s see.’

  ‘Patch installed,’ Al said. ‘I suggest you stand up. There will be a slight disruption in the display while the switchover happens.’

  Aneka got to her feet and there was a momentary feeling of disconnection. The display around her shuddered a little, like a film catching in the projector, and then everything was back to normal, except for one thing.

  ‘The chair’s gone,’ Aneka noted.

  ‘It’s not gone, exactly,’ Gwy replied. ‘Your real body is still sitting in it. It’s not needed with this mode of operation, so I removed it. This gives you full rein to walk around, look anywhere you want easily.’

  ‘Huh. Can you put a chair in if you want? Even virtually I can’t see me wanting to stand the whole time if I’m in here for long periods.’

  ‘I can, theoretically, put in anything you wish. The display is… just a display. A virtual environment. I can simulate anything required within my, or your, capacity to describe it. The minimal acceleration you feel at full thrust is suppressed in this mode. I could simulate zero gravity.’

  ‘Don’t think we’ll need that.’ Aneka grinned. ‘Ella is so going to want to see this. I think she’d get the hang of it pretty quickly, don’t you?’

  Gwy gave a giggle. ‘Aggy and I both think Ella will see great potential in this operating mode. There is a secondary fibre channel in the cabin and I can handle the load of both of you in the same environment. You can show her around.’

  ‘All right. We’ll do that later. It’ll take her mind off New Earth.’

  ‘I’m sure it will,’ Gwy replied.

  BC-101 Hand of God.

  Ten Guardians shifted instantly to attention with shouldered arms as Elroy walked off the shuttle. He paused, looking down the two lines of men and women in dark blue, and then at their Captain standing at the end, then he continued on between the ranks. Behind him, Truelove and Sharissa followed, though they appeared less bemused.

  ‘Honour guard,’ Tasker explained. ‘And… If you had Navy people with you, they’d have been asked to stay on the shuttle.’ She looked past him at the two women. ‘Those two I don’t have to worry about.’

  ‘The Navy is being troublesome?’ Elroy asked.

  ‘They are paying more attention to us than I’d like, but the countermeasures are working. We’re quite secure here. You can say whatever you like and it’s not getting to ears you don’t want it to.’ She turned and started down the hallway. ‘Come on, I’ve got refreshments and comfortable chairs waiting.’

  The Captain’s cabin was a small suite with a more private bedroom, a large shower room, and a comfortable lounge with plenty of seating for the four of them. With a cup of coffee in his hand, Elroy seemed to relax more there than Truelove had seen him do in a long time.

  ‘The FSA appears to be convinced that one or more of your refugees has been compromised by the Herosians,’ Elroy said. ‘They won’t let me see any of them, and they’re convinced they sabo
taged the Hand. They were fairly negative about me coming here.’

  ‘We had fifty people in the sickbay,’ Tasker replied. ‘Thirty-two of those were unconscious the entire time, half of those in medical comas. We almost lost two of them. There were only three who could move about unaided, and none of them ever left the hospital block. And they all came aboard with the clothes they were wearing. Medical scans would have detected implants… Do you mean the FSA or this Pierce person who’s been nagging me to allow a technical team aboard?’

  ‘For practical purposes it’s the same thing,’ Truelove replied. ‘Analysts suggesting other things are being quietly ignored. There are plenty of trustworthy people in the Agency, but Pierce is doing a rather effective information management job.’

  ‘Perhaps my choice of Head was not as well informed as I thought,’ Elroy sighed. ‘He seemed like a good idea at the time.’

  ‘He was,’ Truelove countered. ‘It just… hasn’t worked out as well as it could have. I don’t think this plot was in place when he was installed. Something happened. Someone had an idea and Pierce is in a position to influence things the way they want.’

  ‘It had to start when Lonar fell so easily,’ Tasker stated. ‘It would take time to work out a plan for Beryum and I don’t think Thackett was working off his own bat.’

  ‘And someone faked the footage from Marchant,’ Sharissa said, nodding. ‘Around the sixth or seventh of the fifth. It started then, even if they just told Thackett to be ready for new orders when he arrived at Beryum.’

  ‘We attacked fairly quickly after arriving at Beryum,’ Tasker said. ‘They couldn’t have got new orders to him unless…’

  ‘Unless a ship took them there before you arrived and transmitted them when you arrived,’ Truelove said. ‘It’s thirteen days from Dokar to Beryum in a courier-type ship or a frigate. They could have spent ages planning and dispatched a ship long before you arrived.’