The Winter War (9 page)

‘We are changing,’ Marsden said,
rallying from her general state of shock. ‘It’s going to take some
time to set in place the programmes I have in mind, but we
are
changing.’

‘I know,’ Aneka said, giving her
a smile. ‘I think the whole town of Matlock would agree with you.’
She looked down at Abigail.

‘We would. I came here in
desperation and got more than I could have hoped for.’

Aneka nodded and looked back at
the councillors. ‘But we need to accelerate some attitude changes.
What’s your job in Matlock, Abigail?’

‘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.

8
^th
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-ray 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, 9
^th
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.