Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour (14 page)

Ella and Katelyn both looked at her. ‘Tickets?’ came out simultaneously from both.

‘Well yeah. You two practising wrestling and judo… Maybe I can get one of the networks interested…’

Ella threw a pillow at her.

University of New Earth, 3.12.528 FSC.

‘I have taken receipt of a message from Senator Ollander,’ Al announced as Aneka was waiting in line for coffee.

‘Ollander sent a message to
me?
’

‘Yes. An encrypted message. Diplomatic grade encryption unlocked by your personal key. She seems to have taken pains to ensure that Mister Dowler does not read it.’

‘Right… How long until he breaks the encryption?’

‘Winter suspects that he has a Xinti-tech code hacker available. Two days, perhaps a little longer.’

Aneka frowned. ‘I hope there isn’t anything too secret in it. Play it.’

Ollander’s model-class face appeared in a window in Aneka’s vision field. Aneka was fairly sure that the woman had not slept her way into her current position, but her looks had done nothing to harm her career. Jenlay loved attractive people who showed that they knew they were. It was kind of annoying.

‘I’d imagine you’re wondering why I’m sending this to you,’ Ollander’s recording said. ‘I received a cryptic suggestion and you’re the one person I can think of who fits the bill. I need you to pass this information along to Elroy when he gets there, but my informant also suggested you might be able to get it to people who needed to know.’

Well, that was pretty cryptic in and of itself. What was the woman up to?

‘If things go bad, the Torem are highly likely to stay out of it. They’re too busy trying to keep their species alive to worry that the Herosians will use them as mop-up practice once they’ve hit the Jenlay. They would fight back if attacked, but the Herosians are likely to just come after the Jenlay.’

‘Mutual non-aggression pact,’ Aneka mused. ‘That worked so well for the Soviets.’

‘My informant thinks all, or a big majority, of the Herosian Senators don’t know about the rogue frigates. I have to admit that the ones I’ve seen here seem genuinely outraged or confused. The belligerent ones are looking for something non-Herosian to blame. The others just don’t get it. But, that doesn’t mean most of the military aren’t involved in what’s going on. Herosian politicians tend to end up doing it because no one else will. Their job is making sure the Herosians aren’t disadvantaged commercially. It’s not exactly impossible that they’ve been left entirely out of the loop.’

The Senator managed a smile, if a rather bleak one. ‘Hopefully I’ll be back on New Earth soon. Don’t forget, you’ve still got a date to bring that lovely partner over to visit me and mine.’ The image froze as the recording cut off.

‘Package that up, re-encrypt it, send it to Winter through the usual route,’ Aneka said. She looked blankly at the young man behind the counter for a second and then spoke to him. ‘Three black coffees, one with caramel.’

‘Sure thing, Miss Jansen. Are you okay?’

‘Send a message to Elaine, invite her and Justine over to our place tonight,’ Aneka said to Al. Aloud she said, ‘Things on my mind.’

‘The Herosian thing, right?’ The kid’s name was Kelvin. He thought he knew her, given the amount of times he had made coffee for her. He had even got over his fixation with her breasts now. Most of the time anyway. ‘They’re saying they’ll be able to work things out without it coming to blows. That’s good, right?’

Aneka nodded. ‘Jaw, jaw is better than war, war. Bit of a free Old Earth history lesson there for you.’

He was quiet for a moment, busying himself with the machines. Jenlay science seemed to have overcomplicated a system which had been overcomplicated back in her time.

‘You’ve fought in wars, right?’ Kelvin asked during a lull in the process.

‘More like I’ve fought during the aftermath, but yeah.’

‘It would be bad, wouldn’t it? If it happened. It would be bad.’

Aneka looked at him for a second. ‘Let’s just hope it
doesn’t
come to that,’ she said.

~~~

‘Would the Torem really just stand aside and let the Herosians start a war with us?’ Ella asked, frowning across the desk at Gillian.

‘They are very long-lived,’ Gillian replied, ‘but they have very few fertile females and a low birth rate. Replacing lost people is difficult for them. They’re dying, they know it, and they would likely rather run than face another conflict like the Xinti War.’

‘Why the lack of children?’ Aneka asked.

‘They’re rather closed-lipped about it, but it’s thought that it was some sort of disease. A retrovirus of some sort, perhaps. There were rumours that they’d done it to themselves. An attempt to engineer greater disease resistance backfired and their immune systems can’t tolerate pregnancy. However, their failure to fix it suggests the disease theory is more likely.’

‘It’s the fertile females I feel sorry for,’ Ella said. Aneka gave her a questioning look and she went on. ‘They’re basically considered state property. They’re
paid
to make babies! I mean, they don’t even raise them themselves most of the time because they take a long time to mature and they’re pregnant as soon as possible after the birth. It’s a really horrible way to live.’

‘Huh. Just think, you could have ended up the same way on Odanari,’ Aneka pointed out.

‘That hadn’t escaped my mind, no.’

‘Okay, so we can’t count on the Torem if the Herosians can’t be talked into submission.’ Aneka sighed. ‘I’d better hop a shuttle up to the Hand of God… I really wish they’d picked a different name for that ship.’

‘Want me to come too? We’re not doing much here.’ Ella glanced at Gillian for confirmation and got a nod.

‘No,’ Aneka said, ‘I want you to go shopping. Get some food in; we’re having Elaine and Justine around for dinner.’

BC-101 Hand of God.

Abby and Tasker listened to Aneka’s news in silence. The Captain looked thoughtful afterward, letting Abby speak.

‘I’ll send the data on to Prime City. They’ll need to decide whether they want to commit forces if it comes to a war.’ The black-haired girl looked unsure about the answer she would get.

‘What do you
think
they’ll do?’ Aneka asked.

‘Well
we
don’t exactly have an overabundance of people,’ Tasker said. ‘Our fighting force is basically the ex-Enforcers we’ve moved from police duty to space. We need to leave an effective fleet back home in case the Pinnacle does notice we’re back on the map and we can’t afford to lose too many ships or men.’

Aneka nodded and looked at Abby. ‘Don’t include
any
form of recommendation from me, unless it’s to make a choice based on a good assessment of the situation.’

Abby nodded in turn. ‘There is a valid case to be made for helping, I think. The Herosians have attacked us in our own back yard. They clearly see us as a threat. If we help the Jenlay fight them here, we may stop them from bothering us at home.’

‘That’s a good strategic idea,’ Tasker agreed. ‘A united front now stops them getting us by sheer numbers later.’

‘Yeah,’ Aneka said. ‘It’s a shame the Torem don’t see it that way.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

‘Is Winter ever going to tell Elaine about herself, and you?’ Aneka was sitting on the couch with Justine. She was pretty sure that Truelove was not going to hear what she said because she was keeping her voice low, and because Ella was ‘entertaining’ the blonde analyst in the time-honoured Jenlay fashion.

‘Elaine already suspects something is up,’ Justine replied. ‘One of my twins visited her after the assassination. She recognised me, but there was me acting as though I’d never seen her. She’s never said anything, but she suspects.’

‘What’s she waiting for then? Winter, I mean.’

‘I think she’s setting Elaine up to head the FSA, or whatever we end up with when this is over. She’ll make herself known when she’s ready, I’ve no doubt. For now Elaine’s safer not knowing.’

‘Huh. I wish I didn’t. I really just wanted a normal life, you know?’

‘I know. Unfortunately we’ve been cursed to live in interesting times.’

Aneka sighed. ‘Five hundred years of peace and tranquillity, and I get woken up just before the fighting starts. Get your clothes off before this gets any more depressing.’

BC-101 Hand of God, 25.12.528 FSC.

The Hand of God had a two thousand tonne pressurised cargo bay which Bashford, Monkey, Delta, and a few of the crew had spent the last couple of days turning into Party Central. The ship also had a big nanofac system, quite capable of manufacturing everything they needed aside from the food, which Aneka, Gillian, Ella, and Janna had been assisting with.

The most important thing that the cruiser had was space, as in a vacuum all around it, and several hundred kilometres of distance between it and the planet below. No one who had been invited had declined, and they had all been happy with the stipulation that the ship was to be considered a ‘no politics’ zone until the New Year celebrations were over with.

It was not like anything much had happened anyway. Twenty-five days of talking had resulted in nothing happening, very slowly. The Jenlay Admiralty had wanted to move ships up to the border area with Herosian space, but this had been vetoed as too provocative. The Herosians had apparently had ‘no luck’ discovering the hideouts of the ‘rogue element’ in their own navy, despite having ‘all their best personnel devoted full time to the task.’ That was going down like a pile of manure at a garden party.

The longer it took for nothing to happen, the more Aneka became convinced something
was
going to happen, and it was going to be explosive. She was really hoping that a Christmas party, with a lot of people who actually remembered what Christmas was, would take her mind off the impending doom.

So far things were proceeding according to plan. The Guardians did not drink, but they were slotting a mild euphoric chip before turning up at the large tent, which had been erected for the party, and the effect was much the same. They were operating a rolling duty roster so that there was always a skeleton crew working; when they popped the chip out they were instantly sober so they could be partying one minute and fully functional the next. The Jenlay and Abby were imbibing quite happily, and had no need to be sober, so it was all going well for them.

That left Aneka, Al, and Cassandra as the only sober people in the room, and they spent more than a little time together watching the ‘antics of the organics,’ as Al put it. Aneka generally did not indulge in that kind of thing, mostly because she liked to think of herself as an honorary organic. Somehow it seemed appropriate at the moment.

‘Ensuring that the tent could handle a hull breach was a good idea,’ Cassandra commented.

‘Well, Jenlay can’t go to a party in clothes that could be classified as decent,’ Aneka replied. ‘Of course, Jenlay shipsuits are not exactly decorous, but Ella would have been mortified if she couldn’t wear heels.’

‘Abby and the Captain look very good in the gowns you bought them.’

Aneka picked out the two figures among the crowd. Abby was wearing a clinging, gossamer gown in red with a split from the right hip to the hem. Tasker was in a white, Ultraskin tube. She had been less than enthusiastic, arguing that she needed to do a duty shift like everyone else. Her XO had polled the crew and then told her that they had all agreed that she did not. She had not taken a day off since before the ship went live and they considered it a matter of mental health that she let her hair down once a year at least. So Tasker was in the dress and Janna was making a valiant attempt to persuade her that
real
ecstasy was far better than her fake, electronic ecstasy. Aneka wished her luck on that.

‘They do. The crew seem to be enjoying their presents too.’

‘I’m not sure they understood the concept of foolish tourist presents,’ Al said, ‘but they do appear to be amused.’

Every single crewman was arriving at the party in the same T-shirt. It was black, made of a mesh fabric, and emblazoned with the words ‘I Went To Yorkbridge. See? I’ve Got The T-Shirt.’ Well, they were not
all
the same. At Ella’s insistence the female crew had got cropped shirts while the men’s ones were tighter. She said it was more Jenlay, even if the Guardians had practically no sex drive.

‘Here’s a funny thought for you two,’ Aneka said as that thought hit her, which actually meant Al already knew what she was going to say. ‘The Jenlay make this big deal of not caring about looks, because they’re not ugly unless they want to be. That’s just posturing, because they
do
care, quite a lot. The city people back on Earth really
don’t
care how anyone looks, because they’re doped up on cyberdrugs and don’t have sex anymore.’

‘Interesting,’ Cassandra mused. ‘Jenlay hypocrisy versus an addiction to artificial stimulation. Obviously, given my nature, I’m inclined to believe that a healthy sex life is better. I’m also inclined to believe that the Jenlay have taken the idea of a healthy sex life a little too far.’

‘It doesn’t appear to have harmed Ella,’ Al commented, ‘or Katelyn and Dillon who seem to be more extreme than she is. Mixing the two forms of stimulation caused problems, but that was not Ella’s fault.’

‘What are you three up to?’ Ella, clad in a tight, high-collared Ultraskin mini-dress, had managed to sneak up on them. Well, not really.

‘There’s only two of them?’ Abby said as she circled around to stand beside the little redhead.

‘When Aneka and Cassandra are together,’ Ella replied, ‘then Al’s part of the conversation. And they’re usually talking about the weird things the squishy organics are doing.’

‘In this case,’ Aneka said, ‘we were discussing you and your deviant sexual proclivities.’

‘Fridgy,’ Ella replied, grinning. ‘I persuaded Abby to sing for us; we just need to find something she can do without accompaniment and Al’s got that collection of music from Prime City…’

‘I’m still not sure about this,’ Abby said. ‘In front of all these people, alone, without accompaniment…’