‘Sorry,’ Chan Mei said, ‘what is “Rimmic”?’
‘It’s one of the languages we use where I come from. Aneka told me it sounded like your Mandarin, and it does. I’m no linguist, but I’d say it’s derived from it. Simplified a bit, maybe. Some of the usual vowel shifts and changes you’d expect over a thousand years of divergence, but very similar.’
‘So, you can understand what is being said to you?’
‘Not enough to dispense with your services,’ Ella replied, smiling. She got a very bright smile back in return. Aneka wondered what they were paying the girl to do this job.
‘I am glad of that, and I think you will find this next man most interesting, and far harder to understand. He is over one hundred years old. The Citizens below are treating him with some of their best medicines to maintain his health because he is such a great source of knowledge passed down by word of mouth.’
They stopped in front of a small gate in a fence, Chan Mei putting her hand on the catch. ‘He is very old, and must stay in bed much of the time even with the medicines. Also, he tends to be… uh, huài xīnyǎn de?’
‘Irascible?’ Ella suggested.
‘Yes! Please be patient with him. His name is Chan Nianzu.’ She pushed the gate open and started into the garden beyond.
‘A relative?’ Aneka asked.
‘My great-grandfather, though everyone in the family calls him “Grandfather.”’
The garden was beautifully maintained, with a couple of rhododendron bushes and a lot of carefully mown grass. There was even a small carp pond, though it appeared to have no fish in it; maybe that was a little too much for the family to afford. The house behind it was two stories high and built a little like a pagoda with a wide, open front porch on which was sitting a woman in her sixties or seventies who smiled at them as Chan Mei escorted them past and in.
Chan Nianzu occupied a room on the ground floor with a window which overlooked the garden, though whether he ever got to look out of it was another matter. He was sitting up in bed with a bank of pillows propping up his back and head. He looked every bit of his hundred plus years, completed with wrinkled, yellowing skin replete with liver spots and an entirely bald pate. He peered at the three women entering his room with watery eyes, and then remembered the glasses hung around his neck on a cord.
‘Zhèxiē yóukè nǐ dāyìngle, sūnnǚ ma?’ He had a strong voice still, the accent rendering his words virtually indecipherable even to Aneka’s software. There was an exchange of rapid Mandarin. Aneka heard her name and Ella’s in there and figured they had been introduced. Then the old man said, ‘It is a… pleasure to meet you.’ His accent was thick, but he could obviously speak some English.
Ella gave him her brightest smile. ‘Sher shou omen de ronshing.’
He blinked at her, frowned, and then there was another exchange of Mandarin and Chan Mei said, ‘Grandfather says that the honour is his, and that your Mandarin sounds strange. I explained that you spoke a language like Mandarin, and he says that your “Rimmic” must come from the time before the Demon War when the People went to the stars.’
‘I would very much like to hear about that,’ Ella replied.
Chan Nianzu looked rather pleased that she did. He waved them into chairs, making sure that Ella sat nearest to him. Chan Mei sat opposite them and he started speaking as though he was very used to recounting tales of the long past. With his great-granddaughter translating, they got the story.
‘Long ago,’ Chan Mei said, ‘this land was called China, a land with a long history, going back thousands of years. You understand that this is half-legend he is telling us? It was passed down through many generations. China was ruled by kings and emperors, but always there was the Bureaucracy making sure everything ran smoothly, and eventually the last of the emperors died and the Bureaucracy ruled the land for the People.’
Well, it was kind of true, Aneka thought, in a very simplistic manner.
‘In that time a great gift fell from Heaven. It was the means to travel among the stars, and even though the western lands wanted to keep it for themselves, the People were given the gift too. It became a time of great peace on Earth because no man needed to fight his neighbour for land or… um, resources. The People and the inhabitants of greatest of the western lands sent many ships out among the stars. Grandfather says that there were several of our ancestors among those who left to go to colonies on other worlds. Some returned, much richer than when they left. Others stayed and prospered there.’
‘That explains a lot,’ Aneka said. ‘If China and America were the biggest exporters of people, then the Chinese ended up creating Rimmic and the Hani script, and I’ve always thought Federal sounds more like American English.’
Chan Mei translated what she had said and the old man laughed and continued his story.
‘Grandfather says that he heard the word “America” used once for the western land. Like “China” it is a name that has been lost in time. He says the prosperity of the new age ended when the Demons were discovered. They had attacked some of our… trading partners and much wealth was put into building warships. But the Demons were powerful, with terrible weapons. It is said they were twenty feet tall and men turned to dust just from looking at them. The war went on for decades, but the Demons finally came here. They threw fire and huge rocks down from the heavens. Of those who survived that… torrent, many became sick. The sky was black as night for a whole year. The crops failed and there was snow in the summer. Animals and people gave birth to monsters that lived for only a few minutes before dying, or were stillborn. The Demons had brought Hell to the Earth… Then, after ten years, Manu Dei came and made the world well again.’ The old man looked at Aneka, his eyes narrowing. He said something which Chan Mei translated as, ‘He says that he saw Manu Dei once, many years ago, and you look very much like her.’
‘She was… a distant relative,’ Aneka replied. ‘I only met her the once.’
The old man let out a cackling laugh after hearing the translation and his reply came back as, ‘Now that she is gone he says that he can say that you are better looking.’
Aneka laughed. ‘Thank you.’
‘And you have a better sense of humour. He says that Miss Narrows is very beautiful too. She reminds him of his wife.’ Chan Mei blushed a little and combed a hand through her hair. ‘I get my hair and a little of my looks from her.’ The blush deepened as he continued speaking. She looked like she did not really want to translate, but felt it was her duty. ‘He says he has always had a thing for the red hair.’
Ella giggled and Aneka said, ‘Yeah, you just can’t beat a redhead.’
~~~
By the time they got back to their rooms in the tower, Aneka was getting moderately proficient in Mandarin and Ella had an extensive collection of oral history stored in her computer implant’s memory for Gillian to listen to later. Most of it was fairly uninteresting as far as Aneka was concerned; Chan Nianzu had been the highlight of the day for her. Ella was rather more enthusiastic since she was the anthropologist and this kind of thing was her bread and butter.
Chan Mei escorted them up to the top floor. It was mid-afternoon and Gillian and Bashford were not back yet. Ella stretched as she walked in through the door and Aneka detected a subtle hint about what her own redhead wanted to do with the rest of the afternoon. The evening was to be taken up with a dinner to which a lot of important administrators and scientists had been invited. Aneka would have rather stayed in bed.
‘If you will need my services tomorrow,’ Chan Mei said, ‘you need only tell Councillor Wei and I will be available.’ Something about the way she said it made Aneka turn to look at her properly. She saw a slight reddening along the girl’s cheekbones, a tight quality around her eyes. ‘And… if you need me for any other service before then I am available.’ There was more blush and her lip rose as her nose wrinkled for a fraction of a second. Tiny expressions which would be missed by most, but not by Aneka’s overclocked brain
.
Ella turned and looked at their guide as though she was trying to work out whether she was actually saying what she appeared to be saying.
Aneka spoke before Ella could. ‘We’re pretty much covered for anything we could need right now, thank you Mei.’ Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ella pouting. The real problem was the look of disappointment that flickered over Chan Mei’s face. One minute disgusted with what she’s offering and then next unhappy that we declined?
‘You were wondering earlier what she was being paid for this job,’ Al said. ‘Might I suggest that it was extra if the optional package was made use of?’
‘I hope to see you tomorrow then,’ Chan Mei said, oblivious to Al’s comment. She started to turn toward the door, stopping when Aneka spoke.
‘Mei, wait. We’ve dragged you over half the city. I think we should at least offer you a drink before you go.’
‘Thank you. That would be most kind.’
A message popped up indicating that Ella had initiated a voice connection through her implant. ‘First you stop me from taking her up on the offer and now you’re asking her to stay. Are you being mean, or testing me, or…’
‘I want to know why she offered in the first place. She was really not happy doing it…’
‘Oh… fuck. I really need to get myself looked at.’
‘She was not happy doing it and then she wasn’t happy when I said no.’
‘Well that doesn’t make sense.’
‘Quite. Go put something less covering on. I want to see her reaction.’
‘Be right back,’ Ella said out loud, and strutted off toward the bedroom they were using.
Aneka headed for the small kitchenette which occupied a side of the room. ‘What would you like? We have tea, coffee, various fruit juices… or something stronger if you’d prefer?’
‘Uh… orange juice?’
‘Sure.’ Aneka made sure that the Chinese girl could see her pouring whiskey into a couple of glasses before she went to the fridge for the juice.
‘Coming out now,’ Ella said inside Aneka’s head.
Aneka watched Chan Mei as Ella emerged from the bedroom in a sheer white shirt with exactly one button closed. The nervousness came back instantly. ‘Much better,’ Ella said, flouncing into the room and dropping onto a couch with absolutely no decorum at all.
‘So, what do you do when you’re not escorting visitors around, Mei?’ Aneka asked.
Flustered, Mei looked quickly away from Ella and walked over to collect her drink. ‘I work in the family shop. We sell fruit and vegetables grown outside the city by some of our relatives.’
‘Uh-huh, so you’re not actually a prostitute then?’
Chan Mei’s eyes widened about as far as they would go and her cheeks went scarlet… And then she sagged visibly, looking down at her hands holding her glass. ‘Not normally, no.’
‘So how much more were they going to give you for this job if we’d taken you to bed?’
The girl swallowed. ‘Double. More if I was here until morning.’
‘Right. I take it that’s going to work out as a lot of money?’ There was a timid sort of nod. ‘You’ll get it. Without the extra work. I don’t suppose they explained why they were asking you to do this?’
‘Councillor Wei said that you had a female companion who you were… very intimate with and that you came from somewhere which had a more… uh, open view of… intimacy, and that we should make sure you saw our city in the best possible light so if you wished for, um, entertainment of that kind it should be available.’
Aneka closed her eyes and then threw back her whiskey in one swallow. It was going to do absolutely nothing to her, but the burning sensation at least gave her the glimmer of hope that it would. ‘Oh, this kind of thing is going to have to stop,’ she growled.
Prime City, 12th September.
Aneka had had a set of chairs brought into the audience chamber in Yrimtan’s rooms, setting them in a vague circle. Rather than sitting behind the desk, which she figured was what her twin would have done, she sat on the desk, her hands holding the edge and her feet swinging rhythmically as she waited for everyone to arrive.
On either side of her were Abigail and Chan Mei, looking nervous. Ella, Gillian, Bashford, and Drake sat on the next pairs of seats out. It meant that the visitors rather outnumbered the people they were going to talk to. Harper, Wei Lin, a man from the Western City named Grant Dillon, and Marsden filed in looking almost as nervous as the two surface girls.
Miss Jansen had been glowering and looking purposeful since she had returned from the East with Wei Lin and Chan Mei in tow. She had had the younger girl put up in a room in her apartments and had said that she wanted Abigail brought down from Matlock, and that she wanted a senior Councillor from the West to travel over for a meeting. And she had known full well that while she was being unreasonable, given that she had no real authority, they would do it anyway. Worse, as far as Aneka was concerned, she was right!
‘All right,’ Aneka said when the Councillors were sitting down, ‘let’s get this started. Councillors, Abigail, Mei, I’m going to tell you a story. When we were in the East we visited Mei’s great-grandfather who told us a legend of sorts about the time before the Xinti War, and this is a little like that. The big difference is that no one outside this room is going to hear it. Ever! Is everyone clear on that?’
There were murmurs of assent from the people in the room and she went on. ‘Okay. A long time ago right above our heads, a woman called Aneka Jansen was born to Hugo and Lauren Jansen. She was a bit of a tomboy from a very young age, and when she was old enough she became a soldier. She loved her parents and her brother, Alan, who was a clever young man who loved science fiction. She sat through all sorts of films about alien invasions, but the last thing she ever thought would happen was that she would be kidnapped by aliens. The aliens were called “Xinti,” and they stole Aneka out of a desert and killed her.’
‘But,’ Abigail said, uncertainly, ‘aren’t you Aneka Jansen?’
‘Sort of, but how would you imagine I survived for over a thousand years. How did Manu Dei manage it?’
‘We never knew,’ Marsden supplied. ‘She was never sick. It’s said she was almost indestructible and she had incredible technology available to her.’
‘Huh,’ Aneka grunted. ‘Well, the Xinti had fallen victim to a disease a long time ago. Faced with extinction they converted their minds into computer programs. They could make bodies to occupy as they wished and for whatever purpose they needed, and they worked the same process on Aneka Jansen. Having taken her body apart, they built her a new one, a robot body which could survive in space, in extreme cold, under water… It had a living metal skeleton, and skin which repaired itself through nanotechnology, and body armour under that skin which could easily stop a bullet. But on the way to Earth the ship she was on had an accident… and that’s how I survived for a thousand years. I was stuck in a stasis chamber in a wreck in deep space until these people found me.’
‘You do not appear to be a robot,’ Mei said.
‘That was kind of the point. I was supposed to observe Humanity and report back on their nature. If I’d have been silver and metal, people might have acted differently around me. Anyway, with me out of the picture the Xinti changed tack. They’d built one Aneka, so they could build another, but with a slightly different purpose. I was sent to watch, she was sent to change, and she did just that. When she got back to Earth she got Aneka’s brother to publish a paper on the kind of physics which would be needed to make warp drives work, and when she was ready the Xinti dropped a ship with a warp engine in it onto London.’
The four councillors, especially Dillon, were looking ashen. ‘These Xinti, who you say were the beings who bombed the world, were also the ones who gave us warp drives,’ Dillon said.
‘And Alan Jansen, the father of warp physics, was your brother?!’ Marsden added, her voice rising to a squeak.
‘Ap
parently. I didn’t realise he was quite so famous until I saw his picture in the museum. Anyway, as Councillor Dillon said, the Xinti eventually turned on their creations. I won’t bore you with the details. Let’s just say it wasn’t just a matter of the Xinti being evil, but the result was the near destruction of Earth, and my twin, Manu Dei, simply could not understand why they did it. She also couldn’t put aside the task she had been given, so she began rebuilding the world, making a superior Human race. And you lot are the result. Genetically engineered into two sub-species, one to survive the surface before it was cleaned up, and the other to create all the scientific wonders you have in the city.’
There was silence. None of the Earth people knew what to say. Well what can you say to that? ‘But I didn’t tell you that to shock you,’ Aneka went on. ‘That was the backstory. You see, I think… Actually, we think that Manu Dei realised too late that she had got it wrong. She had taken too much control upon herself, factionalised the population too much. By then she couldn’t stop herself, but she prepared as best she could in case someone could stop her. I think she hoped that you would work things out with a bit of a push, but I think you need a bigger one. I’m not her, but…’ She stopped, frowning, unsure of exactly what she wanted to say. ‘I… feel responsible for making sure she gets what she was hoping for instead of what she has.’
‘We are changing,’ Marsden said, rallying from her general state of shock. ‘It’s going to take some time to set in place the programmes I have in mind, but we are changing.’
‘I know,’ Aneka said, giving her a smile. ‘I think the whole town of Matlock would agree with you.’ She looked down at Abigail.
‘We would. I came here in desperation and got more than I could have hoped for.’
Aneka nodded and looked back at the councillors. ‘But we need to accelerate some attitude changes. What’s your job in Matlock, Abigail?’
The Winter War Page 6