Aneka Jansen 6: The Lowest Depths of Shame

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Where is Pierce being held?’ Aneka asked. She was technically there as Winter’s bodyguard again, but they all knew it was more than that.

  ‘Peacekeeper headquarters. They have an ultra-secure containment annex in the basement.’

  ‘Windowless cell, deep underground? Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. You’re sure he’s secure?’

  ‘No. Elaine Truelove’s first job is to get her agency sorted out so that she can tell me whether he’s secure. However, there is another issue which I’m going to need help with. There is an isolationist movement developing among the Representatives, backed up by several opinion polls. Some of the more extreme of them want to cut off the Rim and consolidate a new Jenlay government out of the core worlds.’

  ‘I assume they don’t wish to work with us on Shadataga?’ Winter said.

  ‘They want to kick out all the Torem and Herosians! No, they don’t want anything to do with Shadataga. CFM are hosting a debate tomorrow night. Can I persuade you to be part of it?’

  Winter gave a sigh. ‘It is my job,’ she said.

  ‘Sacrifices,’ Aneka said.

  ‘Indeed. I’ll need my bodyguard present.’

  ‘You may need a bodyguard to protect you from your bodyguard,’ Aneka growled.

  26.3.531 FSC.

  The cell was, indeed, windowless, and it was about fifty metres under the streets of Yorkbridge. Pierce sat on the metal-framed bed, his eyes closed as he waited.

  It had been obvious that the situation he had found himself in was going to lead to this from the moment he had seen the mass of data in the network. Every plan they had hatched was there for everyone to read. No, he had known they would come for him and he made sure there was a show of resistance.

  The girl, Narrows, had been right about one thing: Pierce did not want to stand trial. He had done nothing wrong. He had done what was best for the Jenlay, and he was going to do that again, just as soon as the new plan came into effect.

  There was a click from the door and then the hum of the motors as it began to slide smoothly to the right. A man in a Peacekeeper uniform stepped through, spotted Pierce and said, ‘Ready to go, sir?’

  ‘I believe I am, Sergeant. How many men do we have?’

  ‘Fifty on New Earth. The force on Corax will begin taking control in…’ He checked his watch. ‘Just over an hour.’

  ‘Good. I want to have Elroy in custody by then.’ Pierce got to his feet. ‘We move,’ he said, a smile beginning.

  ~~~

  For the first time in months, sleep had come relatively easily to Jackson Elroy. He was sleeping on the couch in his office, but that was surprisingly comfortable. Sooner rather than later he was going to have to see about finding a new home, but for now there was a pleasant feeling of security on the sofa.

  The abrupt awakening was less welcome and, for several seconds as hands grabbed him and yanked him to his feet, he had no idea what was going on. Then his eyes managed to focus and he found himself looking at Pierce’s face. He was smiling and holding a pistol.

  ‘Pierce?’ Elroy managed, his brain still fogged with sleep.

  ‘This isn’t over until I say it is, Senator,’ Pierce said, spitting out the last word like an insult.

  ‘What in Vashma’s name do you expect to get out of this?! You’ll have the Navy and the FSA down on this place like a storm.’

  ‘The FSA is weak, the Navy will be mine as soon as my people on Corax have done their work. We’ll be joining them soon. And then I’m going to do what I set out to do, secure the position of the Jenlay as the dominant species in the galaxy.’

  ‘You’re mad.’

  Pierce slammed his pistol into Elroy’s stomach. In truth, it did not hurt as much as the Senator would have expected, but he doubled over in pain anyway.

  ‘I am right!’ Pierce said. Somehow the low, firm tone of his voice made it sound worse.

  FNb Admiral Banfry.

  Ape Gibbons walked onto the bridge rubbing at his eyes. Judy Leeforth was already at her station looking bright and cheerful. He had taken her down for an evening at Feathers the night before. It was not really his kind of establishment, but the company had been good and Judy had enjoyed herself it seemed. She had certainly been quite enthusiastic to continue the erotic theme when they returned to the ship. They were both working on a slightly inadequate amount of sleep, so why was she all bright and glowing?

  ‘Maybe I’m getting old,’ Ape muttered as he climbed into his chair. Louder he added, ‘Anything worthy of note, XO?’

  ‘Not really, Captain,’ Leeforth responded. ‘There is a note of a pair of frigates requesting clearance for New Earth transit twenty minutes ago. They haven’t left yet. Control has been quiet. I think they were partying last night as well.’

  There was a rumble of laughter around the flight deck. Ape decided not to say anything about the lapse in discipline; things were finally settling down and a little humour, even at his expense, was something he could accommodate. He pulled up the comms traffic reports for the last hour just to check.

  ‘Control just gave clearance for the frigates,’ the comms officer reported, ‘along with a light gunship.’

  Frowning, Ape shifted his attention to another screen where the vectors of nearby ships were being plotted out in virtual 3D. He looked back at the comms reports, and then he pulled up a list of deployment orders which were Captain’s eyes only unless he deemed the rest of the crew needed access.

  He got to his feet. ‘There’s something wrong,’ he said. ‘Comms, try to raise Control and ask what those frigates are up to. Commander Leeforth, I want the Marines we have aboard ready to go down to the surface in ten minutes, full tactical dress. You and I are going too. This may be nothing… I’ll be in my cabin. I need to call someone.’

  Tristar Township.

  Winter had quietly upgraded the house’s computers and installed new operating software when no one was looking. The AI was not an especially bright one, but when it said that there was an urgent call from Captain Tor Gibbons, it actually sounded like it was urgent.

  Ape’s face appeared on the wall screen at a thought from Aneka. He looked a little tired, but more worried. ‘I didn’t wake you?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t sleep,’ Aneka replied. ‘Mira said it was urgent.’

  ‘Mira?’

  ‘The house computer. Long story.’

  ‘We’re getting some ship movement up here which isn’t in the orders and I can’t see any reason for it. Two frigates escorting a gunship. Control went quiet for over forty minutes, but they’re back up now and their response for clarification on those movements is… not right.’

  ‘Al, get Winter into this conversation,’ Aneka said silently. Aloud she added, ‘That sounds… suspicious.’

  ‘I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that. I’m prepping the Marines to go down and check the base…’

  ‘Winter is on her way in here now,’ Al said just as the white-haired avatar appeared behind Aneka.

  ‘It would be wise, Captain,’ Winter broke in, ‘if you were to hold off for long enough to get backup. The Admiral Blanchard’s Captain is a good woman, she will assist.’

  Ape did not look especially surprised to see Winter on his screen. ‘Katy Robart, I know her. I’ll get comms to the Blanchard as soon as we’re through. There’s more to this?’

  ‘I’m getting reports through of an armed group assaulting and taking control of the Administration building. Pierce is not in his cell. I think we have a coup attempt on our hands.’

  ‘Elroy’s in that building,’ Aneka said.

  ‘And the likely target. I suspect the gunship you mentioned, Captain, is to take Pierce off-world. If they are fortifying Corax, that seems to be their likely immediate destination.’

  ‘Using Elroy as a bargaining chip.’ Aneka frowned and got to her feet.

  Winter gave a nod. ‘Captain, I’ll get you help as soon as I can, but you need to do as much as you can on Corax
until it gets there. Aneka, we need Elroy back.’

  ‘Can I kill Pierce this time?’

  ‘It would be preferable to have him alive, but I am not going to hold you to that.’

  ‘Good,’ Aneka said, stalking off toward the bedrooms.

  High Yorkbridge.

  Gwy dropped them a couple of blocks from the Administration building, out of sight, and they jogged to the plaza in front of it. Al had his drone along because at this point they were unsure of what kind of resistance they were up against.

  The Peacekeepers had erected a cordon and were cowering behind it. There were snipers in three upper-storey windows who were doing a good job of keeping everyone away from the entrance. There were already five bodies in the plaza.

  ‘I am detecting indications of approximately twenty individuals covering the primary entrance,’ Gwy reported as they moved into the cover of an armoured transport. ‘Estimate of total combatants is fifty, plus or minus five, but they are far more spread out. They have all the access points covered. There appear to be five men on the roof and ten on the top floor where Senator Elroy has his office.’

  ‘Twenty of them,’ Ella said. ‘I’m not a tactician, but that seems to stack the odds in their favour.’

  ‘It’s not good,’ Aneka agreed. ‘If I were them I’d have the other entrances trapped as well as guarded…’

  ‘I think,’ Al said, ‘that this is where I come in.’ He hefted his machine gun.

  ‘They’ll pulverise you!’ Ella squeaked. ‘You can’t stand up to that kind of fire, even in that armour.’

  ‘No, but I can make a very large dent in their numbers while they shoot at me. This body is just a drone. I am not even in it. It can stand significant punishment before failing, and when it does, I will still be here to guide you three. And the Hyde’s nanofabrication suite can have a replacement ready before we could get there to use it.’

  ‘He is right, Ella,’ Cassandra said. ‘Much as I do not wish to see that body broken and ruined, we can have an exact duplicate waiting to abuse as soon as we get this over with.’

  ‘I’ll take out the snipers,’ Aneka said, unslinging her rifle and wrapping herself in her cloak.

  The first was easy. He was watching the street below through a visor which undoubtedly linked to his rifle. Aneka put a round through his right eye and watched his head explode, but when she turned for the next he had ducked out of sight. It was to be expected. The third had not moved far enough. She fired through the frame and watched the heat signature reel away from the window. It might not have been a lethal shot, but it would take him out of the picture.

  ‘Al, go. If the third one pokes his head out, I’ll take him.’

  The drone settled his machine gun in position and marched out across the plaza, walking at a steady pace. Aneka estimated ten seconds until the sniper could no longer target him. Ten seconds for the sniper to decide to take the chance. He took it, swinging his rifle out of the window and bringing his head right into Aneka’s scope. She fired first.

  ‘You’re clear,’ Aneka said as she dropped her cloak.

  ‘I know,’ Al replied. A burst from the machine gun shredded the door and he kicked what remained aside before stepping into the lobby. It lit up with laser fire. The roar of the machine gun and the cracks of laser beams shattering the air was a cacophony of destruction. And then there was silence.

  ‘I am slightly surprised to report that I am still standing,’ Al’s voice said in their heads. ‘That said, I think it will be easier to recycle this frame and create a new one than to repair the mess. I will wait for you to get here and then shut this body down to concentrate on you.’

  Aneka started forward and a Peacekeeper with Captain’s insignia rushed forward. ‘You can’t go in there! They have Senator Elroy…’

  ‘Our authority comes directly from the head of the FSA,’ Aneka told him, ‘and I didn’t see you trying to stop me before I shot the snipers. Now keep out of our way or I’ll assume you’re with the insurgents and shoot you where you stand.’

  Her pistols were in her hands by now and he backed off, raising his hands placatingly. Aneka, Ella, and Cassandra marched across the plaza at a brisker pace than Al had done. It was time to get extremely violent.

  ~~~

  ‘Give this up now, Pierce,’ Elroy said. ‘I can hear the radio. You just lost everyone in the lobby. To a man.’

  ‘They have to fight their way up here,’ Pierce growled. ‘How long before the gunship gets here?’

  ‘Eight minutes, give or take,’ one of the other men replied.

  ‘They are out of time, Senator. The lifts are out and there are still thirty men between us and them. We’ll move out in six. By the time they get here, we’ll be on our way to Corax.’

  ~~~

  ‘You made a real mess of that drone,’ Cassandra commented as she fired on her next target in sequence. ‘Could you even see by the time you finished?’

  ‘No,’ Al admitted. ‘I just kept spraying the room until nothing fired back. Point of note, the visors seem to be the weakest points on your armour. Try not to get shot in the face.’

  ‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ Ella said.

  ‘Concentrate, ladies,’ Aneka reminded them. ‘This is a firefight, not a mother’s meeting. Distance to waypoint alpha?’

  ‘Twenty-three metres, bearing eight-four,’ Al responded, even though Aneka could see the location highlighted on the map in her vision field.

  Aneka fired on a target to her left and moved forward, ignoring the laser burst against her chest and the light show it produced on her shield. The owner of the rifle fell half a second later and Aneka moved through a door onto a service corridor which was empty of soldiers. She waited, letting Ella and Cassandra take the lead as she provided cover to the rear, and they advanced to the stairwell at the corner of the building.

  The concept of fire stairs in a building the height of the one they were in seemed ludicrous, but if the Twin Towers terrorist attack had proven one thing, it was that stairs were a good idea. Even if the architects who had designed this building had never heard of the World Trade Center, they had equipped it with two stairwells which ran unobstructed from top to bottom.

  ‘Okay,’ Aneka said, ‘Al has flight controls. Keep your eyes open for people above us. Just like we always do, but… airborne.’

  ‘Aneka,’ Gwy said into their heads, ‘I am detecting a gunship on course for this general area. There are two frigates in high orbit above us. What do you want me to do?’

  ‘Ignore the frigates. Get a firing solution on the gunship, but don’t fire unless I say.’

  ‘Acquiring target,’ Gwy responded.

  ‘Al, put some push behind it.’

  The gravity harnesses bit under their chests as they were lifted at three gravities up the stairwell.

  ~~~

  ‘Gunship’s on approach,’ Pierce’s lieutenant stated.

  ‘We move now,’ Pierce replied. ‘On your feet, Senator. You are our ticket off this world without incident.’

  Elroy looked as though he might resist, but then got to his feet. There was no point in getting killed now. He was fairly sure from the radio traffic that it was Aneka Jansen fighting her way up to him, along with two others he was not so sure of. Elroy did not know how the woman was going to stop Pierce, but he knew that she was going to stop him.

  They started for the door and the room shuddered. It had not been a massive explosion, but it had been on the top floor.

  ‘What…?’ Pierce began.

  ‘They’re up here!’ his sidekick said.

  ‘How?! They can’t possibly have climbed the stairs this fast with men waiting for them.’

  ‘I don’t know, sir, but if we go out there I can’t guarantee we’ll get to the roof without being intercepted.’

  Pierce turned, grabbing Elroy and backing him to the desk. ‘In that case, we wait.’

  ~~~

  Ella was on rear guard duty, which was not the c
akewalk it sounded like since people kept popping out of side corridors and doors and her rifle had a relatively low rate of fire. But whenever there were too many of them, Al signalled Aneka and she would swing around to provide support. Ella’s heart was beating faster than normal and there was a lot of adrenaline in her system, but she was nowhere near the stress levels she had been on the firing range.

  ‘Next door on the left,’ Al said.

  ‘Good,’ Aneka replied. ‘I’m actually getting low on ammo.’

  Cassandra noted the large group rounding the corner ahead of them and began firing. Aneka raised her left hand pistol and launched two projectiles at the far wall. Plasma blossomed from the impact points enveloping the group of men.

  ‘You could have just said, I was wasting ammo,’ Cassandra commented.

  ‘You never waste ammo,’ Aneka replied as her boot slammed into the door beside them.

  Elroy was standing in front of his desk, Pierce behind him holding a pistol to his captive’s temple. There was another man in the room with them, also armed with a pistol, but he did not move as Ella covered him. Cassandra ignored the tableau in the room, concentrating on the door.

  ‘There is a gunship on the roof,’ Pierce said before anyone else could speak. ‘You will step aside and allow us to go to it, or I will incinerate this piece of filth’s brain.’ Aneka lowered her pistol, holstering the left one and keeping the other at her side. ‘I thought so,’ Pierce said, smiling.

  ‘No,’ Aneka said. ‘You’re not leaving. You’re going to step away from the Senator and hand yourself over to the authorities, or I will kill you.’

  ‘You can’t win, robot,’ Pierce said. ‘I hold all the chips. I have a ship and Elroy. You have nothing…’

  ‘Sir, we can’t get everyone aboard the gunship,’ the lieutenant said, his voice tense.