Aneka Jansen 3: Steel Heart

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Those are inorganic, nanoscale robots,’ Corazon told him. ‘The things are through her entire system, inactive.’

  ‘Inactive?’

  ‘Unless we introduce a foreign agent.’ The image on the screen shifted suddenly and something else appeared in the mix of blood components.

  ‘Is that the influenza strain we made for Ybian?’

  On the screen, the tiny black spheres shifted shape, blurring as impellers drove them towards the viral particles. ‘Yes, it is. One of the most virulent strains we’ve managed to engineer.’ A second later the virus was dissolving into proteins as the nanomachines tore them apart, and then they began destroying the proteins. ‘And these things destroy them in a matter of seconds.’

  ‘Perfect,’ Nayland crowed. ‘The ultimate viral weapon, and the ultimate defence against viral weapons, all in one attractive, redheaded package.’

  ‘She’ll complete her work today, tomorrow at the latest.’

  Nayland hand-waved that away. ‘Miss Narrows is going to come down with a fever in a day or so. Quite a bad one, inducing delirium. She’s already been taking the drugs in her food. She’ll remember nothing and we’ll have free rein to examine her little friends while she’s out.’

  Corazon smiled. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’

  11.12.525 FSC.

  ‘As you can see,’ the voiceover said, ‘Subject Thirty-nine remains in the same crystalline state she has been in for the last seventy-two hours.’

  Ella could not see that, exactly, but she could see the cocoon of glassy material which had grown around the body. The material was not exactly opaque, but the body within was more or less invisible, little more than a shadow. She had seen Subject Thirty-nine prior to her entombment; she had been a fit, attractive young woman who had started out banging on the window of her isolation chamber before sinking into a coma.

  ‘Scanning has shown continued biological activity within the cocoon,’ the voice continued. Ella had come to hate that voice. It was always the same one, a man, and he seemed far too excited by his work. ‘We believe that we have finally got a strain which functions correctly. Strain M-Nine-Sixty is going to be our greatest triumph yet.’

  ‘Bastard,’ Ella muttered, typing out the transcript. She had been feeling off all afternoon. The lab felt even warmer than usual and she was developing a headache. Turning to the list of material, she realised the next one was the last one. Relieved, she cued it up and started it playing.

  The image showed a man’s face far too close to the camera. He was older than she had expected from his voice because when he started speaking she realised that this was the bastard she had been listening to for so many hours. His hair was greying at the temples, his skin sallow, and he looked scared.

  ‘Strain M-Nine-Sixty has…’ He glanced quickly to the side as though he had heard something. ‘It’s been more successful than we thought. It kills anyone exposed to it. We can’t stop them. They just keep…’ He looked away again and when he looked back his face had changed entirely. The fear was gone, replaced by an unnatural calm. ‘They’ve found me. I did this. I deserve this. God, I hope no one ever sees this recording.’ Something flashed in from the left of the screen and the face vanished, and then the image turned to snow before cutting out entirely.

  Ella frowned, reaching out to the controls and rewinding the video. Even in slow motion the thing that had attacked the researcher was nothing much more than a blur. She backed it up again and went through it frame by frame, stopping at a point just as the man’s head was leaving the picture on the right. Was that a head? It looked like hair. What was it he had said? It kills anyone exposed to it. We can’t stop them. It did not make sense.

  Re-cuing the video she started it again to get the transcript down. ‘Strain M-Nine-Sixty has… It’s been more successful than we thought.’ Ella typed that in and then stopped as the image blurred.

  ‘What…?’ she said, her voice sounding thick in her ears. The video played on as Ella keeled over, falling unconscious on the floor of the lab.

  ~~~

  ‘Get her on intravenous nutrients and fluids,’ Nayland said as he followed the cart carrying Ella deeper into the labs. ‘We need to make sure she looks healthy enough when she leaves. Don’t forget to set the dosage of the memory inhibitors and sedatives.’

  ‘It’s all prepared,’ Corazon told him. ‘I don’t think she completed the final transcript.’

  ‘Possibly, but I saw what she did get down. We do have that strain of virus, don’t we?’

  ‘I’ll check the records, but I seem to remember seeing vials labelled with that number.’

  ‘Good. I want it located in storage and prepared for analysis by tomorrow.’

  ‘If it’s as good as they thought, we’ll need some test subjects.’

  Nayland nodded. ‘I’ll contact our usual supplier. It may take a few weeks, but we’ll get them.’

  ‘It’s easier in the stations outside the Rim, closer to the source.’

  Nayland laughed. ‘I know you’re impatient, Lisa, but science takes time.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Corazon said, ‘unfortunately.’

  FNf Delta Brigantia, 14.12.525 FSC.

  Aneka slipped into the gunnery chair on the flight deck with a grin. Technically any of the three operations positions could perform any role, but the one she was seated in was generally used by the gunnery officer and the displays were set up for that purpose.

  Prentice, seated in the pilot’s chair, glanced over at her. ‘You look like a woman on a mission.’

  ‘We’re heading back to New Earth,’ Aneka replied.

  ‘Uh-huh. Course is set, we went into warp…’

  ‘About an hour ago. I heard the drives kick in. I figured now that we’re up to spec, more or less, we could pick up the lessons again.’

  ‘What does Anderson say?’

  ‘She said it was okay if you were okay with it.’

  Prentice chuckled, leaned forward, and tapped some keys on her console. The displays in front of Aneka reconfigured themselves into a copy of the ones in front of Prentice. ‘Okay, what’s our current speed?’

  Aneka’s eyes flicked over the screens. ‘Point-four-nine light years per hour.’

  ‘Okay, so you remember the basics.’

  ‘Side effect of being basically a supercomputer. I remember everything.’

  ‘Huh.’ The pilot’s fingers flicked over her controls. ‘All right, switching over to simulation. I want you to drop us out of warp and then give me a two-G acceleration for nineteen seconds followed by a course correction of two degrees upward pitch, five degrees right yaw.’

  Aneka made a point of checking that a flashing ‘Simulation’ indicator was blinking away on one of her displays before reaching out and taking hold of the joysticks on the arms of her chair. ‘Leaving warp in five,’ she said.

  ~~~

  ‘How are the pilot lessons going?’ Anderson asked. ‘Prentice seems to be enjoying them.’

  Aneka smiled. ‘Yeah, I think she’s got kind of a sadistic streak. I’m enjoying it and I think I’m learning something. At least the basics. I doubt I could get a pilot’s licence…’

  ‘Don’t count on it. Our best pilot thinks she’ll have you up to qualification grade for the Navy by the time we get home.’ The captain shrugged. ‘Yeah, you’d need to do a load of procedural training, but I hear you’re good at that kind of thing.’

  ‘I’ll be happy if I can fly one of these things in an emergency. I’m all about being able to handle emergencies.’

  Anderson laughed. ‘I got the report through about those supposed Knights of the Void on Sapphira. You handled that pretty well. Five dead.’

  ‘Four, I let one of them go.’

  ‘I was counting the taxi.’

  ‘I didn’t kill the taxi.’

  ‘The taxi was pretty dead when you were finished.’

  ‘Well… yeah… but I didn’t kill the taxi.’

  ‘Touchy subject?’


  ‘No,’ Aneka said, waving away the argument, ‘of course not.’ After a second she added, ‘But I didn’t kill the taxi.’

  Anderson nodded. ‘Touchy subject.’

  Hayward Beta Research Facility, 15.12.525 FSC.

  Lisa Corazon watched the glickle as it gnawed on a large lump of Plastex. The things had to be kept in wire cages because they chewed their way out of the adanymax ones used for more or less everything else. The frown on Corazon’s face spoke volumes and the reason for it was that the glickle was still chewing on its brick.

  ‘It should be dead,’ she commented.

  The lab technician sitting beside her looked in at the glickle. ‘Yes, ma’am. This bug was engineered, right? Maybe they engineered it to work on a specific genome. Glickles aren’t even vaguely related to anything from Old Earth. Neither are the other things we’ve tried it on.’

  Corazon nodded. As far as their records showed, M960 had never been used on anything other than Humans. They had tried it on some Human tissue and it was viable, replicating correctly, but seemingly unable to work to full effect. Maybe it needed some specific organ, or would only work properly on a full body. Perhaps a certain mass of material was required. Whatever, she needed a Human subject and it was going to be weeks before Nayland could supply one.

  ‘I guess we’re on hold until we get some new bodies in,’ the technician said, his tone cheerful. ‘Gives us a chance to nail down the genome. We still haven’t managed to lock it down yet. Seems like it mutates at an abnormally high rate.’

  ‘Get the sequences rerun. Cool the samples down to a hundred kelvin, maybe that’ll stop it.’ She looked down at the technician as he started to type commands on his console. She needed some Human subjects…

  Hayward Alpha Research Facility, 17.12.525 FSC.

  ‘How many affected?’ Nayland was looking annoyed, very annoyed.

  ‘Three showing symptoms. We’ve isolated everyone who was in or near to the culture room when the release occurred.’ Corazon was doing her best to look concerned, very concerned, but inside she was trying hard to contain her enthusiasm.

  ‘Do we know how it got out?’

  ‘Not yet. It seems to be able to mutate at an unpredictable rate. Maybe something evolved which could eat through the seals on the isolation cabinets.’

  ‘I hope not. Those seals are no different from any of the other seals in the facility. If it got out that way then it could have infected everyone here.’

  ‘A good point.’

  Nayland considered for a second. ‘To be on the safe side, have Kottigan shut down all traffic between sites. Lock down the Beta site entirely. Anyone there stays there until we’re sure it’s contained. We’ll operate by remote from here where possible.’

  Corazon had not considered that he would do that; she wanted to be over there, examining M960 at work. ‘But…’

  ‘That’s an order, Lisa. No one is to move between the sites.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Corazon said. ‘Of course. Safety first.’

  New Earth, 20.12.525 FSC.

  Winter’s eyes scanned rapidly over her console. Truelove watched her, still a little impressed at the woman’s speed of comprehension. Even after five years as Winter’s assistant, she still managed to be amazed at her boss’ ability to absorb information. The woman was a computer!

  ‘This business with Hayward concerns me, Elaine,’ Winter said, her eyes shifting up to look across the desk.

  ‘Yes, ma’am. The evidence that they are behind the attack on Miss Jansen is circumstantial…’

  ‘And I’d initiate further investigation and we would get nowhere… if it were not for the fact that Hayward has Ella Narrows on Eshebbon.’

  Truelove nodded. ‘Orders, ma’am?’

  Winter’s lips pursed for a second, one finger tapping on them. ‘Check for any outgoing flights to Eshebbon, have them blocked. Send the same orders out to any world with scheduled flights to Eshebbon. Get me a list of any in-flight vessels. I want a frigate in warp to Eshebbon today, orders to retrieve Miss Narrows.’

  Truelove got to her feet and started for the door. Her cybernetics were already connecting to the local network to begin compiling the information Winter wanted. One thing popped up immediately. ‘The Delta Lantilla is in-system and ready for deployment after a crew training exercise.’

  Winter nodded. ‘You deal with the rest of it. I’ll contact Captain DeMarco myself.’

  Nodding, Truelove walked out. Maybe someday if she could remember the name of every ship captain in the fleet, she could be Winter.

  Hayward Alpha Research Facility, 24.12.525 FSC.

  Ella’s eyes flickered open and she saw blurred lights and quite clear diagnostic messages from her implants. There was nothing wrong with her eyes, it was her brain that was distorting the image. She let out a groan.

  ‘Get on your feet, girl.’ Male voice she felt she should recognise. Sitting up was hard. ‘Move it! Can you use one of these?’

  A pistol was shoved into her hands. Up close she could focus on it. It was a laser and she knew how to use those. ‘If I can see anything, sure.’ She looked up again, seeing a man in combat armour. ‘Kottigan?’

  ‘Your memory’s coming back then? I’ve no idea what they dosed you with.’ He shook his head. ‘Never mind that, we have to go.’

  Ella’s bare feet hit the cold floor and the shock seemed to straighten her brain out a little. ‘Tahmada! I’m naked! What the fuck happened to me?’

  ‘Never mind that, we need to get up top and get out of here.’

  Well, he was not wearing a helmet. Stepping forward, Ella rammed the barrel of her gun under Kottigan’s chin. ‘What. Happened?’

  ‘Look, I do security. I don’t ask what they’re doing and they don’t tell me. They’ve had you on drugs for days. Sedatives, memory blockers. Something to do with your blood. You have something in your blood. Something happened. One of their experiments failed over in the Beta facility. They had me lock the place down, but they got out. We need to leave.’

  Ella felt her blood go cold. She lowered her pistol. ‘I need to get my stuff from my room or I’ll freeze.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess. Most of the ones infected here are still… Come on.’ He started off at a fast pace, out the door and down a long, white corridor. Ella had to stretch her legs to keep up with him. There seemed to be miles of corridor, though that was probably just an exaggeration.

  It was as they turned a corner that she saw the first cocoon. It was lying against a wall, part-bonded to floor and wall. Ella stopped in her tracks. ‘Gopi!’

  ‘What now?’ Kottigan snapped. ‘They all go like that, but they’re safe in that state. It’s what comes out that you have to worry about.’

  ‘This experiment that went wrong? Did anyone mention M-Nine-Sixty?’

  ‘Uh… I think I heard Corazon say that once. Nayland shushed her.’

  It kills anyone exposed to it. We can’t stop them.

  Ella swallowed and flicked the safety off on her pistol. Immediately her computer interfaced with the gun’s sighting system and projected data into her vision field. She took in a deep breath. ‘What comes out of the cocoons, Kottigan?’

  ~~~

  ‘The first couple were contained,’ Kottigan said. He was standing beside the door of Ella’s room while she pulled on her suit. ‘That’s what I was told anyway. I’m not sure. They’re not exactly bright, but they can think, and they’re strong. They look like the people who went into the cocoons, but…’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘There’s nothing behind their eyes. They’re strong, like I said, and they won’t fucking die. Or…’

  ‘Kottigan!’ Ella snapped. ‘Focus. Or what?’

  ‘I don’t think they survive the disease. I don’t think they die because they’re already dead. Anyone they touch, anyone they even get too close to, they drop in a matter of hours. There’s a fever and then they go down. Then that cocoon forms and then it’s about four days
until whatever they are comes out.’

  ‘You’re saying this bug is resurrecting the dead?!’

  ‘Resurrects, no. They aren’t alive.’

  ‘Animates then?’

  He nodded. ‘Yeah, they’re animated.’

  ‘That’s not possible, Kottigan. We don’t have that kind of technology. No one does. Not even the…’ She stopped, then sealed up her suit. ‘Where’s Nayland?’ she growled.

  ‘He went out to the landing pad with the survivors.’

  Ella grabbed her helmet, pulling it on and sealing the neck to her suit. Grabbing her pistol she jumped to her feet and headed for the door. ‘Come on, I want a word with him.’

  ~~~

  There were ten people on the landing pad, Nayland and Corazon among them. All were dressed in heat suits, and all were armed, but none of them were security personnel.

  ‘This is it?’ Ella asked as she walked towards the small group with Kottigan.

  ‘You were the last person I could find in the labs. Nayland didn’t want me going in for another sweep as it was.’

  ‘Bastard.’ She raised her voice as they got closer. ‘Nayland! This virus, or whatever it is, it’s fucking Xinti tech, isn’t it?’

  ‘Keep your voice down!’ Nayland hissed. ‘They don’t know we’re here yet.’

  ‘You brought technology back from some site,’ Ella went on. ‘Something some Humans got their hands on and developed out of something they got from the Xinti.’

  ‘We don’t know,’ Corazon answered. ‘We don’t know exactly where they got the nanovirus from. We know they didn’t develop the initial strain…’

  ‘Shut the fuck up, Lisa!’ Nayland shouted, ignoring his own advice.

  ‘What’s the point?’ Corazon replied. ‘We’re never getting out of here alive. None of us are.’

  ‘We get on the shuttle,’ Nayland began, ‘and…’

  ‘And what? The next supply ship isn’t due for days. The shuttle’s got air for twenty hours at best. We die down here, or we die in orbit. We don’t even have a pilot!’