‘I… I am?’
‘I can re-programme your implant to interoperate with our systems. You’ll be a Citizen. Your skills and intelligence make you a suitable candidate for the role of scientist, which carries considerable benefits.’ She turned closing the distance before Ella could respond, her hands grasping Ella’s shoulders and holding her firmly. ‘And providing me with companionship has additional benefits, of course.’ The tingling began, spreading down Ella’s arms.
‘No…’ Ella moaned, trying feebly to back away. ‘Please no.’ The tingling spread into her throat and over her chest. ‘I don’t w-want this.’
‘Your body says otherwise. Must I employ the pheromones?’ Yrimtan turned, pulling Ella with her, and then pushed back. Ella felt the edge of the bed against her calves and was lowered onto the blankets.
‘No,’ Ella whispered, and it was not really clear whether it was a general statement or an answer to the question.
Yrimtan’s hands slid down Ella’s arms and onto her hips. Ella let out a whimper, her legs spreading on autopilot. ‘Good girl,’ Yrimtan said, lowering her mouth to Ella’s mound.
~~~
Aneka slipped through the door into the medical wing, eyes scanning for any sign of someone noticing that Al had breached the lockdown. There was no one. In fact, she could see no one at all until she rounded a corner and spotted the first body. This one was a woman: tall, slim, attractive up to the point where she was wearing two smiles. Despite the fact that her throat had been opened along the jawline, the woman was wearing an expression that could only be described as blissful.
Slipping her pistol out of the bag she was carrying it in, Aneka moved in the direction of the secure room Al had located towards the rear of the zone. What was going on? Why were people being killed here and by whom?
The answer to the second question came first. Aneka heard the dull thuds of pulse weapon fire ahead of her. She turned a corner to see an Enforcer standing over a prone figure, a man in a red-striped dress lying on the floor wearing a blissful smile. The Enforcer aimed his rifle straight down at the medic’s face, and fired. Even from where she was, Aneka could see the skull deforming from the impact. Aneka doubted the target was going to survive a hit like that, but the shooter was taking no chances; another pulse of energy pushed the medic’s face in as though he had been struck by a steel fist. Blood began to spread from the crack that had opened in the man’s skull. The Enforcer looked up, seeing Aneka walking towards him. His head tilted slightly to one side: a quizzical gesture.
‘How many of them are there in this area?’ Aneka asked, her voice stiff even inside her own mind.
‘He is one of three,’ Al replied. ‘I am detecting three more Citizens, none of them moving.’
‘Right,’ Aneka said, raising her pistol. The look on the Enforcer’s face changed from quizzical to alarmed, and his rifle started to rise. He was not even close to fast enough, and Aneka was aiming for his faceplate. The man’s body fell backwards as a dozen shards of plastic flashed to plasma and burned through his face.
Aneka swept onward, picking up his rifle as she went, turning the next corner to see the last two Enforcers moving into a room, their rifles rising. Aneka’s eyes narrowed her view and focussed on the one occupant of the room she could see; Gillian looked afraid, very afraid.
~~~
Gillian had decided it would be very nice to have a shower soon after waking up. Unfortunately she was not likely to get one since the room they were in had only a small cubicle off it with a sink and a toilet. Cleaning up the mess was going to have to wait until they got taken somewhere else.
Bashford had been practically an animal the night before. It was quite a change given that he was quite a considerate lover most of the time. Occasionally he would be more forceful, but he had not gone wild on her as he had the night before for a long, long time; since their time together after she had left Ape in fact. If she were honest, she had not been ready or happy about the way it started, but she had got into it fairly quickly. It was not as though she was being assaulted by a stranger and he had clearly needed the relief. He was not taking it so well, however.
The big man was sitting in a corner, huddled up and avoiding looking at her. Apparently the medics had decided that his behaviour was an issue since two of them had come in to check on him. They stood over him, running sensor heads over his body and muttering. Bedside manner was not one of their strong points, in fact Gillian got the feeling that these people were as much scientist as medical technician. She was about to tell them that they should leave Bashford alone when they both sank to the floor and lay there, smiling blissfully and writhing a little.
‘What the Hell?’ Bashford said, his self-recrimination forgotten briefly.
Gillian was already dropping to her knees beside one of the medics. ‘Elevated pulse, rapid breathing, capillary dilation… If it wasn’t for the fact that she isn’t, I’d say she was having sex.’
Bashford glanced at the slight bulging visible at the front of the male medic’s clothing. ‘I think they’re both reacting as though they were. Some sort of disabling effect triggered through their implants?’
‘But why?’
The door opened and two Enforcers entered the room, each of them raising their rifle and aiming. Gillian swallowed. Then one of the men in the black suits was catapulted forward, tripping over a fallen medic and sprawling on the floor beside Bashford. The second turned towards the threat and got a face full of darts for his effort. Bashford shifted, grabbing the fallen Enforcer’s head to hold it down. He saw the suit tightening, bunching like muscle, and despite putting his full weight on the body he was still finding it hard to hold the man down when another Enforcer walked into the room, raised a large pistol and fired it. Bullets riddled the fallen man’s back. He stopped moving.
Gillian was looking at the pistol. ‘Aneka?’ she asked.
The Enforcer dropped the rifle and pistol, and reached up to take off her helmet. Long dark hair cascaded down, but it was Aneka’s face that grinned at Gillian. ‘Who else is going to come save your butts?’
‘You haven’t yet,’ Bashford commented, ‘though I admit that was an impressive start. And what’s with the hair?’
‘I don’t have plugs in my neck. If I had to take the helmet off, I needed to hide that. We need to get you into another room, out of the way. Where’s Ella?’
Gillian and Bashford looked at each other. ‘She took her,’ Bashford said. ‘She… questioned me and then took Ella.’
‘She?’
‘Manu Dei,’ Gillian replied. ‘Aneka… she’s…’
Aneka’s eyes narrowed. ‘Me?’
~~~
Ella sat on the bed, her legs pulled up to her chin. Yrimtan lay across the foot of the bed, one leg pulled up, her arms trailing back towards the floor. She was smiling.
‘Why didn’t you let me… return the favour?’ Ella asked.
‘It’s unnecessary,’ Yrimtan replied. ‘I haven’t been able to feel that way since Andy died. No one has been able to, um, get my juices flowing, as it were. Perhaps, given time…’
‘You’ve gone a thousand years without having an orgasm?’
‘I didn’t want to feel that kind of pleasure without Andy. It felt like I’d be betraying his memory.’
‘A thousand years without anyone in your life at all?!’ No wonder she had turned out the way she had. She had turned in on herself with the death of one man. No, with his death at the hands of the beings she had considered her creators. ‘We always wondered why the Xinti even bothered giving you the capacity to experience sex…’
‘They didn’t. Not exactly anyway. All the nerve pathways are there, but it’s the mind that chooses to perceive the physical sensations as stimulation, excitement, and then climax. I… choose not to feel those things.’ She laughed softly. ‘I rode your Leo like a stallion and felt nothing. A collection of neural impulses which meant nothing to me.’
‘You addicted him to the
neurostim, didn’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘You did it to me too. I can feel it gnawing at me.’
Another soft laugh. ‘I’ll feed you again soon enough, little firebrand. It’s true what they say about redheads.’
‘Ella, can you hear me?’ Ella struggled to keep the shock and delight off her face. The voice was inside her head. ‘Ella?’ The thought that Yrimtan was playing a trick hit her. But then, why? ‘Ella?’
‘I can hear you. She said you were gone.’
‘I’m not that easy to get rid of. Is she with you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Has she hurt you?’ The tone convinced Ella that this really was Aneka: tense, angry, but trying hard to stay calm.
‘Not really. I mean, yes, but she hasn’t hit me or anything. Where are you?’
‘In the city. I’m on my way to you now. This signal’s piggybacked on the city network. It’s encrypted, but she may detect it…’
Yrimtan slid off the bed. ‘I have something I need to deal with, Ella. You’ll stay here until I return.’
‘She knows,’ Ella said inside her head. ‘She’ll be waiting for you. Aneka, go. Get Bash and Gillian, and leave…’
‘No.’ The connection was gone. Ella was not sure whether it had been cut off or Aneka had disconnected. She heard the door locking behind Yrimtan, and she tightened her arms around her knees. Sure, now she starts saying no to me.
~~~
Aneka stepped into a room which looked, if anything, like an audience chamber. The walls were black, the lighting dim. There were four thick pillars which had to be there only for decoration, and at the far end was another pair of doors, a large chair set in front of them with a desk in front of that. She took a step forward, heading for the inner doors, and she heard the locks closing on the door behind her.
Yrimtan stepped out from behind one of the pillars. She was dressed in some sort of black catsuit, complete with high-heeled thigh-high boots and she held a copy of Aneka’s blaster, Bessie, in her right hand. There was a thick, metal disc strapped to her left wrist. She stepped in front of the desk and smiled. ‘I like what you’ve done to your hair.’
Aneka reached up and pulled off the wig; there was no need for deception here. Tossing it to one side, she shook out her hair. ‘They kept you more like we really looked.’
‘You were built to infiltrate, ingratiate, and study. I was meant to blend in and educate.’
‘So I was told. How much did you have to help Alan?’
Yrimtan smiled, rather proudly, Aneka thought. ‘Very little. He was as bright as we thought he was. A couple of tiny pointers and he worked all the rest out for himself. I’m sure he could have done it all himself with more time, but I was told to speed things along.’
‘I saw his biography in the museum. He must have been happy, seeing all that science fiction become real.’
‘He was. Mum and Dad were very proud of him. They were happy too. They got to see their first grandchild born. They went to the Moon once on holiday. Alan and I saw to that.’
‘Thank you.’ Aneka watched the other Aneka’s body shifting slightly and knew what was coming. ‘We don’t have to do this.’
‘I’m afraid there can only be one Manu Dei.’
‘That’s fine by me. Give me Ella and we’ll leave. You’ll never see me again.’
Yrimtan smiled benignly. ‘And how will you do that? I’ve destroyed the vessel you came here on. My Enforcers will see to it that no one you’ve met lives to tell of it…’
‘What happened to you? You’re me. I’d never…’
‘You’ve been asleep for the last twelve hundred years.’ Anger flared in Yrimtan’s blue eyes. ‘I’ve been awake, alive, living on a world the Xinti shattered. They made Humanity what it was and then tried to wipe out an inconvenient mistake.’
‘The Herosians…’
‘Yes, Ella told me. The Herosians started it, but the Xinti chose to destroy everyone.’
‘The Warriors took over,’ Aneka said. ‘The Scientists lost power and the Warriors went crazy with their new strength. It doesn’t matter anyway. They’re dead. All of them are long dead.’
‘No,’ Yrimtan said, raising her blaster, ‘there’s one left.’
Aneka threw up her left arm, energy blossoming from her hand, spreading quickly out into a shield of force just before the pulse of antimatter hit it. White light flared in front of Aneka and the shield flickered out of existence. She felt the heat from the blast hit her face and messages flashed past in-vision indicating that her dermal layer had taken damage. She pulled her pistol and fired back. She saw a similar shield burst into life in front of Yrimtan, emerging from the disc on her wrist. Each slug burst into fire as it hit the energy field, the jets of plasma blasting through and then dying against the black suit.
Screaming in rage, Yrimtan threw the blaster at Aneka and then charged after it. Aneka pushed the thrown weapon aside, only to be hit in the chest by Yrimtan’s shoulder. She was driven backwards, slammed into the door behind her hard. She felt her pistol being twisted from her grip and heard it clattering across the floor, and drove her knee upward. Yrimtan stopped it with a downward blow, twisted her body, and threw Aneka over one leg, slamming her into the ground. Aneka saw a stiletto heel driving towards her scorched face and rolled aside. She rolled again, this time pushing herself upwards and regaining her feet.
‘Fighting in high-heels?’ Aneka said.
‘We have perfect balance, and I’ve had a thousand years’ more experience in combat than you.’ Yrimtan reached behind her back and withdrew a long combat knife. ‘You’re dead.’ She darted forward, the blade slashing at Aneka’s stomach. Aneka tried to dodge away, but the blade connected, failing to penetrate her suit. Before Aneka could counter, another strike hit her right arm, then a foot slammed into her left thigh.
‘You’re as fast as me, as strong,’ Yrimtan said. ‘Your armour is about as good as mine. We can both keep doing this for hours. But I’ve been fighting for centuries longer than you.’
Aneka felt the blade carve through the skin of her left palm. She backed away, but Yrimtan kept coming. A fist hit her stomach and then the blade was swinging at her face. She felt the edge of it scoring through her cheek and gasped. Her back hit the desk and she rolled aside before Yrimtan could press that advantage. A boot slammed into her back and she stumbled head-first into a wall. She turned, felt her wrist being caught and twisted. Her legs were swept from under her and she was on her back again, but this time Yrimtan was on her, straddling her waist. Aneka’s arms came up at the last instant, braced across Yrimtan’s wrists as she brought the dagger down towards Aneka’s face.
‘We’re both just as heavily armoured,’ Yrimtan said as she forced the blade downwards against Aneka’s arms. ‘That skull of yours could take a hit from a steam-hammer, but there’s one weak spot.’ She leaned forward, pushing harder. Aneka slammed a knee into her back, but it seemed to make no difference. ‘I push this through your eye and it’s straight through into that computer you call a brain.’
‘You don’t have to do this,’ Aneka grunted. The other Aneka was right, and she had the advantage. Aneka could feel her grip slipping. It was just a matter of time.
‘I’m sorry, but I really do.’
Aneka swallowed and let go of Yrimtan’s wrists with her right hand. The blade slipped down six inches, piercing into Aneka’s right eye, before it was stopped as Aneka’s palm braced against Yrimtan’s forehead. ‘No, I’m sorry.’
‘What for, dying?’
‘No, for this.’ Aneka fired off her pulse weapon and a burst of random gravitons appeared briefly within Yrimtan’s brain. The knife jerked away from Aneka’s face, and then down again. Aneka fired again, and again, and kept firing until the charge indicator in her vision field said that the weapon’s capacitors were entirely depleted. She pushed sideways and Yrimtan’s body tumbled off her, sprawling onto the floor of the chamber and lying still.
Part Five: The New World
Prime City, 22.9.526 FSC; 8th August 3186.
The door slid open and Ella looked up half-expecting to see Yrimtan walk back in. Instead she saw Aneka and her expression shifted from worry to horror.
Aneka swallowed. ‘Do I look that bad?’
Ella gave a slow nod and then hopped off the bed to see whether there was anything she could actually do. Fake blood dripped from the hand Aneka was cradling, and from the cut in her cheek which started at her jawline and ended near the corner of her eye. That eye was currently a milky white colour, and had a puncture wound which almost split it in two. Ella could see armour mesh through the flesh of Aneka’s chin, bare metal poked out of a burned nose. Ella hung back, her arms rising as she looked for some method of helping. Then she gave up and rushed forward, hoping for a hug. She got one.
‘Yes, you look that bad,’ Ella whispered. ‘You also look absolutely fabulous. The most beautiful sight I’ve seen in decades.’
Aneka giggled. ‘You’re just saying that because I’m rescuing you.’
‘Again,’ Ella agreed.
‘Yeah, well we still need to get out of here. There are a lot of people in this city and I’m not sure how happy they’re going to be that I’ve killed their boss.’
‘Actually,’ Al said, patching himself through Ella’s implant so that they could both hear him, ‘I think that we may have an entirely different problem with the people here.’
Aneka and Ella separated enough that they could frown at each other. ‘What problem?’ Aneka asked.
~~~
An eerie silence seemed to have sucked all the sound out of the entire city as the small group of visitors left the medical block where Gillian and Bashford had been hiding. Out beyond the kill-zone the Enforcers had set up it was more obvious that something was wrong. Everyone, Citizen and Enforcer, was lying around on the floor or seating, wherever they had happened to be when it had started, and they were doing nothing at all.
Aneka Jansen 3: Steel Heart Page 33
