‘All right, let’s get on with this. It’s probably going to get messy.’
‘Good luck.’
Aneka sighted up on her first target, a man in full, black armour and helmet. He was facing away from her, talking to a pair of ogres. She squeezed off a round, the air ripped open, and the man fell. Swinging quickly to her next target she fired again, dropping her second black-clad victim.
There was uproar. The ogres were clearly not well trained, or even particularly combat ready. Several let out yells, some started looking around for the shooter. None of them seemed to have a clue what to do. Swinging her rifle back, Aneka picked off the two who had been talking to her first victim, and then swept around for another target.
Someone was more efficient, however. There was the sound of glass shattering and then something that felt like a baseball shot out of a canon hit Aneka in the chest. Warning indicators flashed through her vision field and she was pushed violently backward. She rolled, coming back up on her knees and lining up the shot before her attacker could realign his sights. Through the high-powered scope on her rifle she watched as his head turned into little more than mush inside his helmet. Then she ducked back into the hedge, running north through the thick bushes.
Slinging her rifle, she pulled her pistols, Bessie in her right hand, Claret in the left, and pushed back through into the field. There was a shout from her left side and she swung Claret up, the squad of ogres who had gone out after her appearing in her in-vision sighting window. She was not too worried about them, but she laid down an arc of suppression fire anyway, the machine pistol spitting out hyper-dense darts which flashed into plasma as they ploughed into flesh. Her attention was on the house and its windows in case another Enforcer appeared. None did and she turned her attention on the ogres fully. Bursts of darts and blasts of anti-protons wiped them out before they got within fifty metres of her.
She circled the building, found a door, and fired Bessie into it. Bits of burning wood exploded into the room beyond and Aneka yelled, ‘If there’s anyone in there who’d like to get older, I suggest they come out with their hands raised.’ There was a roar of anger, which very effectively announced the charging ogre. Aneka shot him in the face. ‘Anyone else want to be a hero?’
‘Back off, or we kill the women.’ The voice was amplified and had a synthesized overtone, which likely identified it as coming from an Enforcer. So there was one of them alive still at least.
‘If you kill the women there’ll be nothing stopping me from demolishing the building to get to you.’
‘You don’t have the weaponry…’
Aneka fired into the room. It was a calculated risk, but she figured they had their hostages up on the second floor where it would be harder to escape. There were several shouts, a cry of pain.
‘This is an anti-proton blaster, built by the Xinti. I don’t know whether Manu Dei mentioned them, but they were damned good at building weapons.’
‘It’s an estimation,’ Al said, ‘but the Enforcer is probably on the left side of the room.’
‘I’ll take your estimation over anyone else’s facts.’ She fired again, blasting out the window on the left side and then launching two more rounds in through the new hole. Twin explosions rocked the room inside. ‘Come out,’ Aneka yelled. ‘Hands in the air. Or else.’ It sounded really bad once she had said it, but there was no turning back now.
Besides, it worked. A few seconds later the ogres, followed by a dazed-looking Enforcer, walked out of the building, unarmed and with their hands raised. Aneka backed away slowly, covering them with her weapons as they went.
‘I’m receiving a transmission from a Prime City aircraft,’ Al said. ‘It’s Councillor Marsden requesting coordinates.’
‘Marsden? Okay, well, better late than never. Send them the coordinates and put her through.’ Marsden’s face appeared in a window in Aneka’s vision field. She looked rather tense. ‘Councillor, I didn’t know you actually had any aircraft.’
‘We don’t,’ Marsden replied, ‘exactly. This was an experimental anti-gravity transport we developed. I’m not qualified to fly it, but neither is anyone else. I take it from your composed demeanour that you’ve resolved the situation without us.’
‘I wouldn’t quite put it that way. I was really not sure what I was going to do with seven ogres and an Enforcer, to be honest. Your Citizens likely need medical help.’
‘We’re en route. We’ll be there in… two minutes if I can keep this thing in the air that long.’
‘Good,’ Aneka replied, ‘but I’m driving back.’
~~~
Ella dismissed the text she was reading in-vision and turned toward the porch door as she heard the outer one open. She told herself, firmly, that she was expecting Abigail to walk in, but her breathing stopped anyway as she waited. When the porch door finally opened a tiny, strangled sob escaped her anyway.
‘Not quite the greeting I was expecting,’ Aneka said. She started taking her rifle off her back, looking quizzically at Ella.
‘I wasn’t sure you were coming back.’
‘What?’ The rifle was placed on the floor and she followed it with her gun belts.
‘You were really angry, and you were right to be, and I made Abigail feel terrible, though I think that’s sorted out now, and you said I cheated on you, and I sort of did because I knew it was wrong and you wouldn’t approve and I did it anyway and…’ She had to stop to draw breath which gave Aneka a point to get in.
‘You talked to Abigail?’
Ella nodded, her eyes fixed on Aneka. ‘She came over to tidy, would you believe, and I talked to her, and she was feeling guilty for enjoying the sex, and I told her she had no reason to feel guilty, and she seemed to accept that even if she didn’t think she should have done it, and we talked and I think we kind of made up a bit, and then she went and I’ve been waiting and you didn’t come back and I didn’t know where you were and…’
Dumping her jacket, Aneka sat down beside Ella and grabbed her shoulders. ‘Please, Ella, stop for breath. Yes, I was angry with you. Yes, you screwed up. But it sounds like you’ve apologised properly to Abigail and I know you wouldn’t have done it if my twin hadn’t fucked you over in the first place.’
‘Yes, but…’
‘No buts. I forgive you. I certainly wasn’t going to leave you, you little idiot.’ Ella let out an incoherent little sobbing sound and Aneka pulled her into a tight hug. ‘Of course, it’s no sex for a month and you have to sleep at the foot of the bed.’
‘Okay,’ Ella replied in a tiny voice.
‘Good grief! You really did think I’d gone for good. Where did you think I was going to go? I can’t get home without the Hyde.’
‘But… This is your home. Earth. The real one. You were born here.’
‘Aneka Jansen was born here. I was born on a planet in the Negral system which doesn’t even exist anymore. My home is on New Earth, with you.’
‘Thank you.’ Tiny voice again, but there was no point in saying anything else; Ella was sobbing quietly into Aneka’s shoulder. There really was nothing else to say.
Part Two: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Prime City, Old Earth, 19.10.526 FSC, 9th September 3186.
‘We have received an acknowledgement message from Harriamon,’ Harper said. ‘It appears that our tachyon transceiver system works according to your specifications.’
Aneka gave him a smile, which he seemed rather pleased by. ‘Was there any doubt it would? Aggy gave you the specs, I had every confidence in your ability to build the thing.’ He had come up to Yrimtan’s rooms to tell her the news since Ella and Gillian were there. So was Bashford having finally got over his own addiction, more or less.
‘What did the message actually say?’ Bashford asked.
‘Basically,’ Harper said, ‘“We have received your message and are forwarding the contents to New Earth.” As I said, an acknowledgement of receipt. There was a message following it, somewhat larger
and encrypted. That was addressed to Doctor Gilroy.’ He produced a small memory stick and handed it to her. ‘I took the liberty of transferring it to this.’
‘Oh… Thank you, Councillor,’ Gillian replied, taking the stick and frowning at it.
‘Ten credits says it’s from Ape,’ Aneka said.
‘Probably,’ Gillian agreed.
‘I believe you are all scheduled to travel to the Eastern City today,’ Harper said.
‘We’re leaving in… just over an hour,’ Aneka replied.
Harper nodded. ‘It’s not a long trip, about forty minutes. One of the Councillors will be waiting to receive you, Wei Lin.’
‘Is that a Chinese name?’ Ella asked.
‘I believe so.’
‘Huh.’ Ella looked at Aneka. ‘It does have a sound like Rimmic.’
High-speed Train Between Prime and Eastern Cities.
There were no windows on the train, but from what Aneka understood, the view was not exactly spectacular. They were rocketing down an evacuated, nanofibre reinforced Plascrete tunnel. There were no lights out there and it was all pretty boring. The VIP carriage on the train was, however, very comfortable and came with computer terminals and workstations, and big, comfortable chairs if you just wanted to sit and chat.
Gillian used the time to view the message she had received from Harriamon. Bashford sat in his chair, near Gillian, but not watching what she was doing. He was being very attentive having been left with a lot of guilt over the way he had behaved immediately after Yrimtan had thrown him in with Gillian. Gillian had tried saying she forgave him, she had tried talking to him about it, and now she was hoping he would just get over it.
Ella was also over her addiction to the neurostim effect; Aneka was thankful for that. However, the girl had been left with a higher libido than ever, which Aneka was hoping would wear off eventually. As it was, Ella was disappointed that there was not a little more privacy since she would have liked to have had sex on a supersonic, underground train.
‘Well,’ Gillian said as she emerged from the headset she had been using, ‘it was from Ape.’ Ape Gibbons was her ex-partner, the father of her son, David, who everyone called Monkey for obvious reasons. Ape was the captain of a battleship and they had last seen him in Harriamon’s orbital naval base. ‘Basically there was an “I’m glad you’re alive” message which I’m to pass on to David. There was also a message for all of us regarding re-entering Harriamon space. Apparently there have been three more attacks on ships in the system. So far, whenever they get there they find a wreck and no sign of the attacker.’
‘Nothing?’ Bashford said, frowning.
‘Nothing at all. They used a rather inadvisable warp manoeuvre to get to the last one within forty minutes of receiving the distress call. Still nothing. The press are running with various stories, including the Xinti and the Ghost Fleet, of course.’
‘Getting there that quickly there should have been something. Nothing I know of could get out of sensor range that quickly. Something with that sort of acceleration has a big emission signature.’
Gillian shrugged slightly. ‘Xinti reactionless drives don’t, and they had very effective stealth systems.’
‘And the Ghost Fleet would just vanish where they came from,’ Ella put in.
‘Except,’ Aneka said, ‘that the attacks don’t fit the profile for the Ghost Fleet, do they? These ships are destroyed; the Ghost Fleet disables the ship, kills the crew in various horrible ways, and then leaves, taking a few people when they go. And I don’t believe it’s the Xinti. I don’t think it’s their style either.’
‘Currently it’s a mystery,’ Gillian said, ‘but Ape said we should be careful when we go home and avoid letting anyone know exactly when we will arrive. He thinks we could be a prime target.’
Aneka shrugged. ‘We should be used to that by now.’
‘We should,’ Gillian replied, ‘but I, for one, will never get comfortable with the idea that someone wants to kill me.’
Eastern City.
Wei Lin was a petite oriental woman who managed to convey considerable authority despite being shorter than Ella and Gillian. She came with the full ‘beautiful Chinese girl’ package, including waist-length, jet-black hair and dark brown eyes, and she stood on the platform waiting for them with her hands clasped demurely in front of her. There were also four Enforcers behind her who snapped to attention as soon as Aneka stepped off the train.
‘Greetings,’ she said in perfect, unaccented English, ‘and welcome to the City of the East. I am Councillor Wei Lin and I will be happy to be your guide through our glorious city.’
‘Good… evening, I think,’ Aneka said, since the little speech had mostly been addressed at her. ‘I’m Aneka Jansen, this is Doctor Gillian Gilroy, Ella Narrows, and Leo Bashford. Doctor Gilroy and Miss Narrows are here to study your culture and history. Mister Bashford and I are just the hired help.’
Wei Lin’s composure slipped a little, but she rallied quickly. ‘Of course.’ Her attention shifted to Gillian.
‘Aneka is rather more than “hired help,”’ Gillian pointed out. ‘She’s our advisor on the way things were on pre-war Earth.’ She gave Bashford a quick grin. ‘Bash is just here because he looks pretty though.’
Wei Lin smiled; at least she had a sense of humour. ‘Councillor Harper indicated that you would like to see the city and one of our surface facilities, but it is early evening here and I would suggest that you spend some time with our archives tonight and proceed with your tour tomorrow. We have prepared a meal of locally produced ingredients which we can serve whenever you wish, and Councillor Harper suggested that we put you up in Manu Dei’s suite aboveground.’ She glanced toward Aneka as she added the last; she had obviously met Yrimtan at least once, and that probably meant she was fairly high ranking.
‘I’m not her,’ Aneka said flatly. ‘We were… related, but we’re very different people.’
The Councillor nodded. ‘You appear to have a better sense of humour. Let us get you settled in. We have historical information going back to the foundation of the city, and more anecdotal material from before that. I believe you will find it most informative.’
‘I’m sure we will,’ Gillian said.
10th September.
It was after midnight local time, but no one was tired; the eight-hour time shift was throwing their body clocks out. Gillian was still working her way through the historical database, particularly the pre-foundation material which she seemed to be finding very interesting. Bashford was supplying her with drinks and, as he put it, looking pretty for her. Ella’s main work would be done in the morning when they had people to talk to. She had gone over some of the more modern data on population density, health, and lifespans, but now she was standing beside Aneka at one of the large windows in their bedroom looking out over the buildings below and the bay stretching out beyond them.
‘This was mainland Hong Kong,’ Aneka said, her voice soft so as not to disturb the mood. The lights were out in the room and there was very little light coming up from below. They were maybe two hundred metres above ground level. ‘It was a huge, thriving city in my time. Kind of the meeting place between East and West. Now they have one tower block and we’re in it.’
‘Were you ever here, before?’
‘Once. For about… six hours. We had a stop off and I took the time to look around. That was mainly on the island though. It was… vibrant, I guess. Lots of people, lots of activity.’
‘There’s still some activity down there.’
‘Huh… Seriously, that’s a slow Sunday in a sleepy town in Iowa in comparison.’
‘Right. I don’t know what Iowa was, but I get the picture.’
‘Well, the other city is somewhere in that region. Maybe you’ll get to see it.’
‘Maybe. Harper said that the Western City didn’t have much to offer. He said that continent was the worst hit. They’ve had geological disasters on top of the bombing. The west coast
got hit with some huge tidal wave about a decade after the war. The east coast was carpet-bombed with kinetic impactors as well as some strategic nukes.’
‘I guess North America was a primary target.’
‘Uh-huh.’ There was a second of silence and then, ‘I should get some sleep, but I’m not tired.’
Aneka chuckled. ‘Is that a hint?’
‘More of a suggestion.’
Unsealing her suit, Aneka said, ‘Well I guess this time I can take it.’
~~~
The main difference between the two cities seemed to be the far larger building above ground on the eastern one. It gave easier access to surface dwellers, so that was convenient.
The houses were all built of wood, but Wei Lin assured them that they were a combination of ancient building techniques and modern technology. Not one building had ever succumbed to an earthquake since the city had been built. Aneka looked up at the tower they had slept at the top of and wondered whether it had the same resilience.
The two couples split up, Wei Lin going with Gillian and Bashford, and a new interpreter being supplied for Aneka and Ella. She was a surface dweller, Chan Mei, tall and slim with a mix of features that suggested some occidental parentage. For one thing she had strawberry-blonde hair which was not exactly common in oriental people. She was dressed in a very pretty, Chinese-style dress, and Aneka got the impression it was brand new and had been given to her just so she could be as presentable as possible to the visitors. Importantly she spoke perfect English with a slight accent, and Mandarin which the locals spoke.
The other thing Chan Mei knew was where all the old people with interesting stories to tell lived. Ella sat and listened carefully to all of them, and then the translation from Chan Mei, and slowly began to smile as they went along. Aneka’s universal translation software was puzzling its way through the language as they went, but it was apparent that Ella was getting more than a few words.
‘It really is a lot like Rimmic,’ she said as they walked from one house to another. ‘I’m not getting everything, but I could possibly get by here.’
The Winter War Page 5