‘I take care of Citizens who visit the town, get them food, make sure the guest houses are clean…’
‘And do you ever receive any payment for that?’
‘Well… no, but…’
‘How many people have even thanked you for the work you do?’
‘Uh… Excluding you?’
‘Ella and I don’t count.’
‘One or two… maybe.’
‘Thank you, Abigail. Now, we can view Abigail’s experiences as part of the “previous regime,” so to speak, and I’d love to say that that is so, but then I met Mei here. Chan Mei is a bright girl who could probably make more of her life than working in a shop, but if that’s what she’s happy doing then okay. She was our interpreter. Her English is as good as mine, certainly as good as Ella’s…’
‘Better than mine,’ Gillian put in.
‘So one might ask why it is that she was asked to whore herself out for a big bonus. I mean, big plus for actually paying her to do the translation work, Wei Lin, but you’re not a brothel madam and Ella and I can manage to entertain each other perfectly well if the need takes us.’ Wei Lin’s eyes were bulging slightly and she had gone an interesting shade of red. Aneka was not sure whether it was anger or embarrassment; either would do. ‘Which brings us to why you thought it was a good idea, and I can only assume that someone from this city told you that we were into actual physical pleasure rather than the cybernetic delights you people indulge in.’
To his credit, Harper owned up, even if his tone was a little resigned. ‘I suggested that someone could be provided if Councillor Wei could find a suitable young woman.’
‘And she found herself a suitably attractive young lady who was able to act as a translator and told her she’d get a bundle of cash if she was willing to sell herself as well,’ Aneka stated flatly.
‘You’re an attractive woman, Councillor,’ Ella said, smiling sweetly. ‘There was no need to find anyone else.’ Wei Lin looked like she was going to choke.
Marsden was hanging her head by now. She looked up and said, ‘But no Citizen is going to do that when there are all these people on the surface desperate for the morsels we throw their way.’
Aneka looked at her, checking she meant the statement in the way Aneka hoped she did. ‘Yeah, exactly.’
‘None of my ideas are going to work while we have this mindset,’ Marsden went on dejectedly. ‘Even if we start working more with the surface population we’re going to come over as patronising teachers trying to educate children.’
‘We’re even getting it with some of the people you’ve sent up to work on the Hyde,’ Drake said. He and Bashford were benefitting from earpieces which translated the English into Federal. The locals were wearing them to do the opposite. ‘Shannon gets irritable around a lot of people anyway, but she’s been ready to tear some of your staff new assholes. I thought about an accident involving an airlock, but I decided the political incident was probably not a good idea.’
‘I… appreciate your restraint, Captain,’ Harper said. ‘This is going to take time. We can’t change a lifetime of preconceived ideas in a few days.’
‘We know that, Councillor,’ Gillian said, ‘but you people have to start it.’
‘You need to think through what you’re doing before you act on it,’ Ella said, ‘and change your mind if you’re basically treating the surface people, or anyone, like a servant. Well, unless they actually want to be treated like that, but I doubt you’ll find many of them here.’
‘And please,’ Aneka said, ‘stop trying to impress me. I’m not her. I don’t need your… adoration. This place, up on the surface anyway, was my home once. I want to see it back to the way it was. Better. You’re all intelligent people, you can do this.’
‘I hope you’re right,’ Marsden said.
8th October 3186, 18.11.526 FSC.
The slim, aristocratic face of Senator Jackson Elroy looked out at them from the wall screen of the lounge. He was looking very much the same as the first time Aneka had seen him, which was to say slightly irritated. He was a member of the Senate Council and he had been responsible for handling the Negral negotiations, and here they were handing him another diplomatic issue, all be it an easier problem than the last one.
‘Unfortunately, confining someone to a planet without some form of near-capital crime is unconstitutional. I checked. Otherwise I’d keep you lot from going anywhere ever again.’ Aneka was fairly sure he was joking, but you could never tell with the man. ‘I suppose you did point out there may be Humans on Old Earth so we can’t claim we weren’t warned, but did you have to discover an entire civilisation?’ He shook his head. ‘I should be saving my best despairing reprimand for when you get back I suppose. Frankly, this is going to cause a few political issues, but compared to a city full of Xinti artificial intelligences, you’re practically giving me a gift-wrapped bag of precious metals. There are a few of the same technology issues, but I gather that the cities there are not that far in advance of us. We suspect that there will be some resurgence of Humanity First and the like wanting to “return Humanity to its true home,” or some such gopi.’
‘Want to bet he never expects anyone else to see this?’ Ella asked.
‘It doesn’t seem like him to drop Rimmic swear words in, no,’ Gillian replied.
‘I know you’ve probably got more work you’d like to do there,’ Elroy went on, ‘but hopefully by the time you get this you’ll have enough information to give a full picture. We need you to get back to New Earth as soon as possible. There are some follow-up messages and attachments with the procedure we need you to follow. Have a safe journey.’
‘Drake,’ Bashford said into the air, ‘did you get that?’
‘I got it. We’ll begin preparations at this end. The city engineers say they can get fuel up to us quickly enough. I say we plan to leave the day after tomorrow.’
‘Works for me.’ Bashford looked around at Gillian.
‘We’ve got as much information as we can without doing a proper analysis and returning,’ the archaeologist supplied.
‘Right,’ Drake said. ‘Then you’ve got about thirty-six hours to wrap things up down there. Drake out.’
‘What about the other messages he mentioned?’ Aneka asked.
Gillian looked down at the tablet in front of her. ‘An attachment labelled “Flight Path Instructions,” that’s for Drake and Shannon. Another one marked as personal for me. I think we can guess who that’s from.’
‘I might have to start getting jealous,’ Bashford commented.
‘He can beg and I wouldn’t go back to him. There’s also something marked private for Aneka. I’d imagine we can guess who that’s from too.’
Aneka frowned. ‘What the Hell does she want?’
~~~
Winter was looking her usual, impassive self as she looked into the camera. She was the head of Federal Security, no one knew her real name, or anything much about her, and she had the remarkable ability of wandering around unnoticed when she wanted to. She was pretty and blonde, which did not really distinguish her from anyone else, and she had the sort of face you tended to forget, at least if you were another Jenlay. Aneka had never forgotten her, but then again Aneka never forgot anything.
‘So there really are still Humans alive and well on Earth, huh? Wonders never cease.’ A faint smile crossed the woman’s lips. ‘I’m glad you managed to survive Yrimtan. That had to be a tough fight. Right then, to business. Drake will be getting a bit of a briefing on this too, but I thought you should have a specific head’s up because… Let me just tell you what we’ve got so far. There have been more of these pirate-slash-terrorist attacks on shipping, but one of the victims managed to get away from their attacker. More luck than judgement, but we got a little data out of their sensor logs. The thing came out of nowhere. It just appeared and started shooting. The only thing we’ve ever seen that can work that way is the stealth field system the Xinti employed during the war. They seem to be using gamma-r
ay beam weapons, which we don’t have and the Xinti did. On the other hand, the design is totally unlike anything the Xinti ever deployed, and the thing was using a reaction drive. We’re barely wiser than we were before, but it’s something.’
The image paused for a second as Winter thought about her next sentence. ‘If this is some new Xinti threat then you need to keep your back covered because if they know where you are they’ll likely want you dead. Personally I don’t think there are Xinti out there. I have a theory on who they are, but it’s too early to say anything about it. If I’m right, though, you’d still be on their target list. So… come back alive. I might need your help soon. End message.’
‘That was typically enigmatic,’ Al commented.
‘Yeah, business as usual,’ Aneka replied. ‘Winter is being enigmatic, and someone wants me dead.’
‘Don’t you think it’s nice to be wanted?’
‘Yes, but I’d much rather it was just Ella that wanted me.’
Matlock, 9th October.
Aneka dropped the shuttle in toward the town square, swinging it slowly around as she lowered the landing gear, and then setting her down on the tarmac.
‘Show off,’ Ella accused as she unstrapped herself.
‘Practice makes perfect,’ Aneka replied, ‘and I pointed the rear hatch in the direction the Lindens will come from.’ Reaching forward she tapped a button to lower the hatch to form a ramp.
Ella giggled and climbed to her feet, skipping down the cabin in a way that made it obvious she was up to something. Of course, Aneka knew what that was; she had to since she was the pilot.
They had to wait a bare two minutes before the Reeve and his daughter appeared at the edge of the square, both of them smiling. It was a very welcome change from the first time they had met. Though, reflecting on it, Linden had been smiling then, he just had not meant it.
‘Aneka, Ella,’ Linden said in greeting, ‘to what do we owe the pleasure? Nothing wrong I hope.’
‘Nothing wrong exactly,’ Ella replied. ‘We’re going home tomorrow and we wanted to say goodbye.’
Abigail’s face fell a little. ‘Will we see you again?’
‘Honestly? I don’t know. I hope so, but it depends on so many things… Which is why I wanted to ask whether you’d like to go up? Just a short trip. A little sightseeing, if you want.’
‘Up?’ Linden asked, obviously unsure what Ella meant.
‘Space?!’ Abigail’s question was almost a squeak.
‘Assuming you’re okay with that too, sir?’ Aneka said. ‘There’s almost no danger. I won’t lie and say none, but I promise she’ll be quite safe.’
Linden’s eyebrows went up. ‘You want to go up there, Abby?’
‘I’d love to. I mean, it’s scary, but… to see the world from up there…’
‘Well I think you’ll be in safe hands. How long will she be gone?’
‘An hour, maybe a few minutes more. One orbit and we’ll bring her back.’
‘Very well then. You’ll have plenty to tell the rest of the town next time we get together to tell stories at least.’
Abigail gave a little yelp of glee and wrapped her father in a hug.
‘Well,’ Ella said, ‘she gets one more chance to back out. There’s one safety precaution she may not like. If the rear hatch closes in a minute, make sure you’re standing well back.’
Linden chose, wisely, to start walking to the edge of the square straight away while Ella took Abigail up the ramp onto the ship. Aneka followed wearing a smirk. She could hear Ella explaining the safety precaution required.
‘Regulations say that if you’re going into space you need to be wearing what we call a shipsuit, like the one I’m wearing. Except that these were made for us by some friends and we don’t have one you can wear, which means you’ll need to put that on.’
As Aneka got to the top of the ramp and waited, her thumb over the close button, Ella was pointing to a standard, white, semi-transparent shipsuit that was lying on a table along with the gloves and helmet that went with it.
‘It’s, um, kind of… see-through,’ Abigail said.
‘And that’s why you get the option to back out,’ Ella explained.
‘But if I wear it, I get to go into space?’
‘Yes you do.’
‘You’ve seen me in less.’
Aneka hit the button on the hatch and started forward. Being sure she was not in sight of the windows, Abigail was already undressing. ‘Here’s the safety talk then,’ Aneka said. ‘If anything should go wrong… It won’t, I hasten to add, but if it does, you are to concentrate on putting those gloves on your hands. Don’t worry about anything else. I’ll get your helmet on and make sure all the seals are done up. Believe it or not, with the gloves and helmet on, that flimsy-looking garment will keep you alive in a vacuum.’
‘I can do that,’ Abigail replied.
‘Good. When you’re dressed, come up front and we’ll get going. I’ll get us started.’
By the time she had the anti-gravity system powered up and the thrusters online, Abigail was settling herself into the co-pilot’s seat. She looked like any young Jenlay, though that was thanks to normal genetics rather than manipulation, and the excitement of what she was about to do was far outweighing any embarrassment she might be feeling over the skintight bodysuit she was wearing. Ella settled into a chair set at the rear of the cockpit, and Aneka pushed the ship upward.
‘How are you feeling?’ Aneka asked.
‘This thing is very… tight,’ Abigail replied. ‘Aside from that I’m just excited.’
Aneka chuckled. ‘It’s tight because it keeps your body from trying to expand if the air goes.’ She checked her altitude and then shifted her hand over the slider which powered up the main engines. ‘Hold on, here we go.’
There were light clouds in the sky above them and suddenly they were rushing up to meet them. Then they were gone and there was nothing but blue sky around them, which slowly began to darken into black.
‘Oh… wow,’ Abigail breathed as, in the middle of the day, the stars began to come out overhead. She looked off to the left. ‘The rings look prettier from here.’
Aneka glanced that way seeing the thin plane of debris. It was all shattered satellites left over from the war. The Xinti had made sure nothing in orbit survived, cutting off communication to the planet. She set up the orbital insertion to be well within them and then rolled the shuttle over so that they could look up at the planet’s surface. After a couple of minutes the main engines cut off and they were left in near silence with the world gliding past above them.
‘Everything looks so small from up here,’ Abigail said, ‘but big at the same time. I mean, I hardly ever go far from town. Going down to Prime City was the furthest I’ve ever been, until now. It’s such a big world and I only know a tiny part of it.’
‘Maybe you’ll see more of it,’ Ella said. She got up and stepped forward to get a better view. ‘Councillor Marsden has a lot of plans about getting better education and technology out into the surface towns. She mentioned you, and Mei, as possible pilot students.’
‘Me? Why?’
‘You’re used to dealing with Citizens. They’re trying to change, but the first few students will be teaching them as much as they learn. You impressed her. You’ve got courage. You’re not afraid to stand up to them if you need to. They’re going to need that to make this work. It’s up to you, obviously. It would mean moving away from home for at least some of the time. But I think you should consider it carefully.’
‘But what would I learn? I don’t know anything aside from singing and how to keep a house.’
‘I don’t honestly know, Abigail,’ Ella replied, grinning down at her, ‘but won’t it be amazing fun finding out?’
FScV Garnet Hyde, 20.11.526 FSC.
Aneka sat in the lab watching Earth recede in the rear sensors. She had rather mixed feelings. That was her home she was leaving, maybe never to return. On the oth
er hand, she was going home and leaving a world she had no real attachment to behind. This was not her Earth, but neither was the one she was now en route to. The picture vanished, replaced by a star field; they had shifted into warp. Aneka gave a little shrug and turned to her companions.
Everyone was staying up for the short trip to Harriamon. Gillian and Ella, with some help from Aneka, were going to spend the time going over everything they had on Old Earth as it was now compared to what they knew about it before the war. Everyone else was just happy to avoid cold sleep, though Bashford had decided they might as well go through the equipment checking for faults. Aneka suspected that, once their flight plan was set, Shannon would be making sure Drake did not leave the cabin aside from routine checks.
‘Regretting leaving, or in a rush to get home?’ Ella asked.
‘We go as fast as we go,’ Aneka replied, ‘and that’s not my home anymore. But… I kind of feel like I’m stepping away from an obligation.’
‘You’re one woman, you can’t change the world.’
‘Yrimtan did.’
‘And look where that got her. They need to change themselves, and you gave them a good start.’
Aneka nodded, slowly. ‘We gave them a good start.’
Ella grinned. ‘I’ll accept that. I think I’m looking forward to getting home though.’
‘You just want to organise an orgy with Kat and Dillon.’
‘It’s not just that!’
‘I notice you’re not denying it.’
‘No, my libido’s totally off the chart. I’m quite aware of it and I can let it go there, but… um… I really need to cut back on this because… I don’t want to screw up again.’
‘You won’t,’ Aneka replied lightly.
‘But I might…’
Aneka lifted a hand, stroking it down Ella’s cheek. The redhead’s eyes closed and a small shudder ran through her body. ‘You won’t.’
‘If you two want to take the rest of the day off I won’t mind,’ Gillian said, a hint of humour in her voice.
Aneka let Ella go. ‘No, I think we should get on with the work. Ella’s always more enthusiastic when she’s had time to wind herself up.’
The Winter War Page 7
