Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour (31 page)

‘Fine. I just needed a break from the screens.’

‘It does get to you after a while. Even doing it this way your brain goes mushy eventually. I’ve been reading over the reports from New Earth.’

Reports had been coming in for about a day on the outcome of the battle. At first there had been relief; the Herosians had failed, the system was safe. Then the extent of the damage had become clear, the loss of life, the injuries. As far as they knew, pretty much everyone they knew was safe, though their homes were not. Mid-town had taken extensive damage. Gillian had sent a message suggesting that anyone who wanted to could use her house out on the western edge of the city which had been left untouched.

‘Anything new?’ Gillian asked.

Abby’s face straightened. ‘One piece of bad news. Dillon Zacks? Ella’s neighbour? He was injured, spinal damage. His partner is okay, but he’s been transferred up to the Argus to see what we can do for him.’

Gillian swallowed. Spinal injuries were difficult to fix. Nerve regeneration rarely worked on them and if there was skeletal trauma too… Dillon was an active sort of man. He would not take well to being restricted by injury.

LV-101 Argus.

Katelyn looked up at her lover as he hung in a suspension field, his body encased in what amounted to a full-body splint of bioplastic. He was unconscious; it meant they did not need to keep pumping him full of drugs for the pain.

‘We have two possible courses of action,’ the man beside her was saying. He was a doctor, one of the ones from New Earth, and Katelyn was acutely aware that they were lucky to have the man working on Dillon’s injuries. There were a lot of hurt people on the planet, but for whatever reason it seemed that Dillon’s case had been given more priority than it perhaps deserved. Katelyn suspected that it was because they were friends of Aneka’s. She had certainly not mentioned it, but a team from the Argus had seen them at one of the triage centres, recognised them, and taken them in hand immediately.

Shaking her head to clear it, Katelyn gave the man a weak smile. ‘Two?’

He nodded. ‘Regeneration could give him back full function, but the spinal column is notoriously difficult to regenerate properly. There will be a requirement for considerable physical therapy, and his back may always have some loss of stability.’

Katelyn swallowed. ‘In case his physique didn’t give it away, he likes to keep himself in shape. He would
hate
being unable to lift his weights.’

The doctor gave her a smile. ‘We had noticed that he seemed fond of exercise. All that muscle likely saved you, and probably resulted in less severe injuries to him. His back
is
very well supported.’

‘You said there was another way?’

‘I hesitate to mention it since I understand that Jenlay are… resistant to cybernetic implants. We can replace his spine, probably the rib cage as well. Splice in nanofibre nerve replacements. It would be quite extensive surgery and there would be some requirement for therapy afterward, but he would have full function and once the muscles have properly knitted to the new framework he probably wouldn’t notice a difference, but… Well, he would be a cyborg, if a limited one.’

Katelyn looked back at the man hanging in the air beyond a Polyglass screen. ‘He’s from the Rim. He’s never been bothered about robots or cyborgs. He’d be more worried about what I’d think. I’m the one with the irrational prejudice.’

‘I see. Obviously, we need to ask him, but if you think the cyborg operation would cause problems…’

‘No. That man is everything to me. If
he
thinks he couldn’t stand the operation then he’ll have to learn to live with not lifting weights. I’d love him if you had to replace his entire body. You offer him both options.’ She laughed. ‘I’ve spent enough time around Aneka to know it’s not
what
you are that counts, it’s
who
you are.’

‘A commendable attitude,’ the doctor said, ‘and one I hope your fellow Jenlay will embrace. I’m afraid your partner is far from the only victim of that battle where replacing body parts is the best course of action.’

Tristar Township.

‘You know,’ Sharissa said, her voice soft, ‘Janine is not to blame for this.’

Janna glowered at her for a second and then relented with a sigh. ‘I know. It’s just…’

‘She’s an aspect of Winter and you’re angry. Yes, but it’s not really Winter’s fault either. Ella volunteered. From what Janine said, she
insisted.
’

‘Yes, but…’

‘And you know why too. She wouldn’t allow Aneka to go alone.’

‘I know that, but…’

‘And you know that Aneka couldn’t say no, because that’s the way she’s wired, if you’ll pardon the expression. And Aneka will do everything in her power to keep Ella safe as well.’

‘I’m not going to apologise for not liking the fact that my daughter is in danger!’ Janna snapped.

‘No one’s asking you to, love. However, this constant fuming about it is just raising your blood pressure, making Janine uncomfortable, and not helping anyone else’s stress.’

They were in Gillian’s back yard, standing beside the low wall at the edge of the property. Janna’s gaze fixed on the horizon and she drew in a deep lungful of air, letting it out slowly. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, and very flat, as though she were forcing the emotion from it.

‘When Ella was taken ill… When it became clear they couldn’t really help her on Harriamon anyway, I knew the only way I could help her was to bring her here.’

‘I know you had to work hard…’

‘I did whatever I needed to to get the money. I’ve never told her. She knows it was hard, of course, and she suspects… I did overtime at the club, slept with anyone who would pay me, did whatever they asked. I made films. Not the kind you see in the core, the specialist ones. There were times I was glad she couldn’t see the state I was in, but even she could tell I was hurt on occasion.’

Sharissa swallowed. She knew the kind of thing Janna was talking about. Jenlay did not classify films with sex in as porn, but the word did have a meaning, generally qualified by type. The urge to find the distributers and producers and murder them in messy ways surfaced and was pushed aside.

‘I would literally do
anything
for Ella,’ Janna went on. ‘I’ve done everything except die for her. Now…’ the brunette turned, blinking back tears. ‘There’s nothing I can do. I feel so helpless.’

Sharissa nodded, reached out, and pulled Janna to her. ‘Ella’s got two people she would do anything for, love. She’s with one to keep her safe, and she’s doing it to keep you safe.’

Janna gave a little nod. ‘I’ll apologise to Janine. And Winter.’

‘I don’t think either of them wants an apology. Just go back to being Janna. They’ll know they’re forgiven.’

‘You don’t mind if I worry though, I hope?’

Sharissa gave a soft laugh. ‘Everyone else is. It’d be hypocritical to ask you not to.’

Gwy, 28.1.530 FSC.

‘Two fighters,’ Gwy stated in Ella’s ear. ‘Port side rear. Closing at one thousand and sixty-two metres per second.’

Ella twisted the ship to starboard, rolling at the same time. ‘Weapons?’

‘My electronic warfare suite is reducing the effectiveness of their targeting systems. Their armament is unlikely to penetrate my force shielding. However, I am detecting an incoming cruiser-sized vessel and over thirty more fighters.’

‘Gopi,’ Ella muttered. A thought directed the lateral turrets to engage the two smaller craft and she twisted the ship around more weapons fire in an attempt to save the shields for anything else which might come their way.

In truth, she wanted to put her foot down hard and run for it, but she had to hold her position until Aneka could leave the nearby asteroid and get back to Gwy. Her orders were to hold for another sixteen minutes and then assume Aneka was dead. Well, she was simply not considering the possibility, but she was certainly going to hold on for another sixteen minutes.

‘Fighter’s disabled,’ Gwy announced, her tone calm.

Ella slammed the ship into a tight turn, swinging it under the asteroid. ‘Stealth systems?’

‘Repairs complete.’

‘Engage them…’ She pulled the ship up, putting the huge rock between her and the oncoming ships. ‘Now!’

‘Stealth field engaged,’ Gwy replied. ‘Multiple missile launches detected from the asteroid.’

Ella saw the flares of engines. It looked like the entire surface of the thing was coming out to meet her. They could not see her, but they had to know where she was. They would detonate in a wide spread and hope it was close enough. If she could just…

But she was too close. The explosions jerked Gwy hard to starboard, rippling across the space under her belly. Indicators floating in front of Ella showed systems going offline as the force field and hull were breached. There was no way she was getting out of this one…

And the flight environment dissolved around her to reveal Aneka standing at the front of the small room, grinning broadly.

‘You got me,’ Ella growled, ‘you don’t have to look so happy about it.’

‘Actually,’ Aneka said, still beaming, ‘I’m happy because it took a missile broadside to take you out. What was that? Two frigates, seven fighters, and that was after I cheated and had your cloaking shield malfunction.’

‘You performed admirably, Ella,’ Gwy said, appearing beside Aneka, ‘and I have a better feel for the interaction between your implant and my systems. I believe we make an effective team.’

Sitting up, Ella reached behind her neck and disengaged the cable that was connecting her to the ship. ‘If I’d given the asteroid a wider berth…’

‘You could have probably dodged the explosions,’ Aneka finished, nodding. ‘I doubt our target has that kind of firepower anyway. It’s a command station in a system they don’t expect to see anyone entering.’

‘Then why hit me with it?’

‘Because it’s a simulation and you might as well train for the worst while it isn’t going to kill you.’

‘It sure
feels
real enough,’ Ella replied. ‘I think I could feel the heat from the detonations.’

‘That is just your imagination,’ Aneka told her, grinning. ‘You did good, love, and if we do this right, you won’t even need to have done the training.’

Ella gave a sigh and got to her feet and started for the gravity lift. ‘Two more days.’

‘Until we get there,’ Aneka agreed, following. ‘Maybe another one or two for planning. Nervous?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. I’d be worried if you weren’t.’

29.1.530 FSC.

Aneka was listening to Herosian. It was an odd language, full of guttural noises and sibilants. The latter was kind of expected in the race that looked reptilian. She had always been a little disappointed that it did not really show up when they spoke Federal, but then the future refused to meet up with her expectations at times; the Delta Brigantia had an engineer named Scotts who did not have a Scottish accent.

‘Do you think you’ve got the hang of that?’ Ella asked from the bed.

A display of recognition data from her universal translation software appeared in-vision and Aneka flicked through it. ‘I’m not quite up to native comprehension.’

‘Do you need to be? Hours of self-teach Herosian language lessons is less fun than hours of actual language lessons.’

Aneka grinned. She had been listening to the recordings for most of the trip, on and off. She checked the readout again; she was going to be able to understand everything but the most complex or scientific conversations she heard. Good enough.

‘Okay, get your pads on and I’ll beat you up some more.’

Ella grinned and scrabbled to comply. ‘Massage after, right?’

‘I’ll even use the scented oil.’

Shadataga, 30.1.530 FSC.

‘Second thoughts, sister?’

Winter turned from the galaxy display to see War and Evolution standing behind her. It was the former who had spoken and Winter took it as a sign of their own disquiet that the AIs were expressing themselves vocally rather than simply exchanging messages. She doubted they had grown as used to physical form as she had over the last thousand years.

Turning back to the display she said, ‘No. I have no second thoughts on the matter. That does not stop me allocating runtime to the possibility that I have sent two women I consider friends to their deaths.’

‘We have given them every advantage,’ Evolution replied, stepping closer and looking up toward the spot Winter was watching. Up there among the cloud of simulated stars, a trail showed the expected path of Gwy. It was very close to its destination now. ‘Aneka is very capable. A few Herosians will present her with little challenge.’

‘It’s not them I’m worried about. I suspect War understands.’

‘It’s what we don’t know about,’ War responded. ‘We have accounted for everything we can envisage happening, but Aneka has to deal with what we have not considered.’

Evolution nodded, but did not seem overly troubled. ‘Agreed, but is that not why we requested that Aneka do this? We could have sent an automated probe if we knew
exactly
what we were dealing with. I have every confidence in our team.’

‘I’ve spent too much time among the Jenlay,’ Winter replied, smiling bleakly. ‘I can’t discover a reason for my disquiet, but I can’t eliminate it either. They refer to the feeling as a “hunch.” Somehow I feel this is not going to be as easy as we currently think it will be.’

‘This kind of enterprise rarely is,’ War replied.

Gwy, 1.2.530 FSC.

‘So that’s Herosia,’ Aneka said.

‘What’s left of it,’ Ella replied. She was working at a desk which had formed itself in the second cabin for her to use as a console. Gwy was arranging for them to both see the sensor data they were getting as a three-dimensional projection in the air of the room. ‘There were seven planets and three asteroid belts here the last time anyone saw it. No gas giants.’

Now the system had ten asteroid belts. Some were denser than others, but Aneka could not tell which of them had once been spheres. The Xinti had blasted every world in the system into rubble. Not just the Herosian home world, all of them.