Steel Beneath the Skin (37 page)
Read Steel Beneath the Skin Online
Authors: Niall Teasdale
Tags: #cyborg, #Aneka Jansen, #science fiction, #adventure, #archaeology, #artificial intelligence
‘You’ve made a happy woman, Bash,’ Gillian commented.
‘Looks like it. I’m happy someone other than me thinks it’s drinkable.’
‘Bash,’ Aneka called over her shoulder, ‘beer is what God invented wheat and water for.’
~~~
‘So what happens next?’ Aneka asked as they sat around in the lounge that evening. Drake and Shannon had gone off not long after dark, despite Gillian’s protests that she had plenty of space to put them up for the night. Now Ella was lying with her head on Aneka’s shoulder, Gillian was sitting in Bash’s lap with no sign of embarrassment on either side, and Monkey was quietly ignoring them all since he did not have a girl to be cute with.
‘Back to work,’ Gillian said, ‘assuming you’re both up to it.’
‘I am,’ Ella replied, interrupting the soft kissing of Aneka’s neck briefly to do so.
‘And I’d be up to work the day after I stopped a nuclear missile with my face,’ Aneka added.
Gillian chuckled, Bash and Monkey laughed. ‘I wouldn’t recommend that,’ Gillian said. ‘Your chassis is not
that
resilient. Oh! I forgot. While you two were having your little desert island holiday I got a mail through from the Administration. The xinti ship we found Aneka on will be available for analysis at the start of next month. They want our team to lead the project.’ She glanced over at Aneka, her eyes narrowing. ‘I think I detected Winter’s hand in the order. This is going to be a heavy technology mission and she’s put a field archaeologist in charge.’
‘Making the assumption that you’re right,’ Aneka replied, ‘and that she did have a hand in this, do you really believe Winter is the kind of woman who would put you in that position if she thought someone else would be better?’
‘Ah, well, no. I simply meant that there are more proficient administrators for…’
‘So she thinks subject knowledge needs to have higher authority than logistics and procedure. And you could bet your salary that that decision was made on cold logic.’
‘You think Winter’s cold?’ Ella mumbled, and then seemed to consider what she had just said. ‘You know what I mean.’
Aneka considered it for a few seconds. ‘I think she makes business decisions based on a careful, logical, cold analysis of the situation. I currently don’t have an opinion on her personal demeanour.’
‘Not being able to get drunk does amazing things for your ability to use long words,’ Monkey commented.
Aneka grunted. ‘I’ll add that to my list of things I need to figure out. Being pleasantly pished would be kind of nice.’
‘Pished is good,’ Ella mumbled. ‘I like pished.’
‘What’s this analysis of my wreck going to involve?’
‘A few months in space,’ Gillian replied. ‘They’ve parked the ship in orbit around the largest moon of Joval Seven and they’re building a small station to connect it to the Hyde and provide some additional laboratory space.’
‘It’ll be like a normal expedition, but closer to home,’ Bashford added. ‘There’ll be a lot of zero-G work, but we won’t have to sleep in free fall. We can drop down to the moon for supplies and recreation. There’s an outpost there used for low gravity research, some commercial interests, and as a military training post.’
‘There’s also an enclave of torem there,’ Gillian went on.
‘You can get your space-legs
and
meet more aliens,’ Monkey said.
‘Sounds like it’ll be interesting at least,’ Aneka commented, though her mind was really more on Ella’s tongue, which was tracing along the skin of her neck under her ear. The little redhead had been much more intimate, delicate, gentle about her sexual overtures since coming back from the island. It was probably a sign that she was a little more disturbed than she claimed to be, but Aneka liked it.
‘Between the xinti archives and that ship,’ Gillian said, ‘I’m hoping to find out more about them than we’ve ever previously known. Abraham will be there to look at the technology. He thinks he may be able to get the ship’s computer up and running, perhaps some of the other equipment. Yes, I think it could be
very
interesting.’ She looked across as Aneka let out a small whimper. ‘Perhaps you should take Ella somewhere private?’
‘We’re good,’ Ella replied as her hand slid between Aneka’s legs. ‘Besides, I owe her one.’
University of New Earth, 9.7.524 FSC.
Aneka walked out across the atrium headed for the coffee shop. It was mid-morning and she had needed the break from trying to discuss what she knew of the economics of Old Earth, so she had offered to get the coffee in.
There was a queue, but that did not bother her. She had discovered that she had more patience lately, possibly due to the fact that she could quietly read behind her eyes while she waited for things. Today she was reading through various xinti documents about their military structure. They had operated a three caste structure, warriors, scientists, and administrators. At the time Aneka was taken, the Science Caste was basically controlling things and the Warriors had done little but practice. It was not unlike the Federal Navy now.
‘Is the coffee here any good?’
Aneka turned at the voice behind her to find Winter standing there in a short-skirted suit with a sheer blouse and lightweight jacket. ‘It’s about as good as any of the coffee you have these days. A little too bitter for my taste, but it’s something to drink.’
‘I need to talk to you when you’ve got your drinks. Join me when you’re done.’ She turned and walked off to one of the small tables at the side of the shop, perching on a half-stool to wait.
Aneka joined her a few minutes later, putting her plastic tray of cups down on the table and perching opposite the spy mistress. ‘I got you some water. I remember you said coffee made you hyper.’ She tapped the cup nearest to Winter and the woman smiled, lifting it free. ‘I also figured you didn’t want to discuss grinds and bean types.’
‘No.’ However, she took a sip of her water before continuing. ‘You’ve proven yourself a valuable asset since your awakening. Jenlay are much better social creatures than they once were, you see? The anti-social traits with genetic origins have been eliminated from many. Social engineering during education works to weed out learned behaviours. We have had little in the way of conflict for hundreds of years.’
‘That sounds like a good thing.’
‘It is. It would be even better if there were no circumstances were a… less perfect solution is required. Hunter, the Knights of the Void… They are not the only ones and I need people like you to make sure they don’t destroy everything we’ve built.’
Aneka frowned at her. ‘You’re offering me a job? You want, what? An assassin?’
‘Trouble-shooter.’
‘Trouble-shooter who kills people.’
‘When required.’
Aneka looked up at the ceiling for a second, and then back at Winter. ‘When I… Well, when I died, I was a soldier. I killed people for a living, but I was trying to make my living rescuing people instead. I’m good at killing, but I don’t need to like it. I woke up a different person in a different world. A better world. I’ve got a chance to be something else here. I’m a facilitator and next month I’m going to be helping to find out how the ship I was found in ticked. It’s constructive instead of destructive.’
Winter nodded. ‘I can understand that point of view.’
‘Good. I’ve no doubt that if you have something you think only I could do, you’ll ask, and come up with a way to make me think I should do it. But I don’t want that to be my life.’
‘I can live with an arrangement like that.’
Aneka gave her a smile and slipped off her stool. ‘Enjoy your drink,’ she said, and then she picked up her tray and started for the door.
Outside the sun was shining and a light breeze was somehow making its way down to the atrium floor to keep the heat at bay. Yes, it was a new, better world she had found herself in. She had a new body which she was starting to really think of as her own. She had friends, and a place in the society she had found herself in. There was steel and super-high-tech components under her engineered, nano-tech enhanced skin, but there was also Aneka Jansen in there, and Aneka Jansen had found a new home.
###
About the Author
I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.
Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.
I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still loved the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.
Writing, sadly, is not my main source of income. By day, I’m a computer programmer. I work for a telecommunications company in Manchester, England. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.
For More Information
The
Thaumatology
Blog:
http://steelbeneaththeskin.wordpress.com
Other Books by this Author
The
Thaumatology
Series
Thaumatology 101
Demon’s Moon
Legacy
Dragon’s Blood
Disturbia
Hammer of Witches
Eagle’s Shadow
Ancient
Dragonfall
The Other Side of Hell
For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
Anthologies in the
Thaumatology
Universe
Tales from High Towers’ Study
Tales from the Dubh Linn
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