Steel Beneath the Skin

by Niall Teasdale

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  The legal code was certainly boring and, despite Aneka’s vague hope that lawyers might have died out in the last millennium, it appeared to be written in the kind of legalese she was used to hating in her time. She was glad she had chosen to lie down to read through it, the text scrolling past in-vision.

  As far as she could tell, even if Al was a volitional AI by the terms of the law, and it was looking more and more like it, she could not be harmed for having him as part of her body, and he could not be removed simply for existing. He could be destroyed if he did something for which the death penalty applied, but she thought he was unlikely to commit treason or murder more than five people.

  Unless hiding the entire xinti archive, every last file, was going to count as treason at some point in the future. They had vastly underestimated his storage capacity, and he had quietly filed away everything the ship’s computer had decrypted on being given the directive to do so. She had asked him what his storage capacity was, but ten zetabytes meant absolutely nothing to her.

  ‘Can you speak?’ she asked in the silence of her mind.

  ‘Yes.’ The voice was soft, but masculine. It whispered in her ears, it seemed, though she was fairly sure that the computer was speaking directly into her brain.

  ‘Then why haven’t you spoken before?’

  ‘If your conditioning had been completed, I would have. The Xinti would have fully trained you in the use of your body. As it was, you were shaken enough by the discovery of your situation. A voice in your head seemed… unwise.’

  She let that sink in for a second. ‘So you just let me think you were nothing but a smart computer?’

  ‘I knew you would figure it out eventually. You’re smarter than I am. I let you come to your own conclusions and tried to give you the information you needed when you needed it.’

  ‘Okay. So there’s more to this body than I’ve already figured out?’

  ‘You have grasped the fundamentals. There are nuances I can teach you, and a few things you haven’t discovered. I also have files on your weapons and systems you may find instructive.’

  Aneka nodded. ‘We’ll start tomorrow.’

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  The Garnet Hyde was a hive of activity once again after six months of near silence. Aneka moved through the people rushing about in preparation with a serene calm she did not entirely feel, performing whatever task she was given by Gillian or Bashford as they asked for it. They were preparing for orbital insertion, and everything had to be ready, but she had never been through this kind of operation, and she was as much an observer as she was a participant.

  In-vision she watched the ship’s flight plan as it neared warp-exit. An indicator on the display told her that that would happen in five minutes and forty seconds. Another display indicated the current locations of each of the crew within the ship. Al had spent the last five months walking her through what her systems could provide for her, giving her opportunities to work with all the information she could have at her fingertips in controlled situations, and she was now quite used to spreading her attention across multiple displays and the real world.

  It had been something of a revelation that her mind, now running on an electronic device instead of an organic one, could and did operate far faster than it used to. It had taken her a while to get used to. She ran on a dedicated computer a little smaller than her brain had been, set within her heavily armoured skull. Al was a separate entity from her, running on one of the two cores of her secondary computer, but he was able to “read” her thoughts while she was largely unaware of him until he chose to interact with her. She had not been sure that she liked that at first, but there seemed to be no adverse effect. He had been designed as both a support AI and an observer; the Xinti had wanted someone analysing Aneka’s reactions as well as having her reports on what was happening.

  She was heading for the cargo hold to check with Bashford when she heard the engine note change. Her hearing had better discrimination now than she was used to, and she could also hear frequencies normal humans could not. The steady ultrasonic hum of the warp drives had been a constant tone in the background for months now. She had not even realised she was hearing something that everyone else could not until Al had displayed a Fourier Transform graph, and explained what it was, which showed that the harmonics she was hearing were in the fifty kilohertz range. Now she heard them rise sharply and then fall away entirely as the warp field collapsed and they entered normal flight. A second later she picked up the roar of the fusion torch engines powering up, along with the low frequency harmonics it generated, as the Hyde’s computer adjusted their velocity.

  ‘We just dropped out of warp,’ she said to Bashford as she entered the hold. ‘We’ll be docking with the station in fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Your fancy graphics telling you that?’ He did not turn or look up, he was checking off consignment numbers on a fold out tablet.

  ‘The time, yes. I heard the engines switch over.’

  ‘Huh. I’m sure a talent like that could be useful. Maybe you should learn some drive mechanics.’

  ‘I’ll put it on the list.’ He grunted in response, a half-laugh. ‘It’s a long list. You just about done here? Need any help?’

  ‘I’m… done, so no.’ He pushed the side of the screen in, rolling it into the handgrip. ‘You can assist me by walking back to the mess with me. Everything should be locked down and ready for transport. It’s just a waiting game now.’

  Aneka nodded. ‘The others are already there.’

  ‘You seem to have spent the time getting here well,’ he said once they were out in the corridor. ‘You seem more comfortable in yourself.’

  ‘Yes. I did put in some more time on equipment familiarisation, but I’ve learned to use my body a lot better too. Basic military strategy, know yourself and you’ll win half your battles.’

  ‘Huh, you’ve read Gobari?’

  ‘Sun Tzu.’

  Bashford frowned. ‘I don’t believe I know that one.’

  ‘Probably not, it was written about twenty-five centuries before my time. I’d imagine that’s something else that’s been lost, but the principles applied to warfare in my time so I’m not surprised they apply to space too.’ She grinned. ‘And The Art of War is easier to read than The Book of Five Rings.’

  ‘I’ll take your word on that.’

  ‘Not much choice. What’s the procedure when we dock?’

  ‘There’s not much to do. The stuff down in the hold will be taken off and shipped down to the university by the cargo handlers. It’s largely automated. We’re pre-cleared for transit, so it’s just a case of picking up your personal luggage and making your way through to the shuttle. There’s a regular service, every hour, on the hour.’

  ‘Very efficient. I guess spaceflight works the same now as air travel did in my time. I’m kind of looking forward to it. Getting my feet back on earth, I mean. Seeing the new world I’m supposed to be living in.’

  ‘Kind of?’

  ‘Some trepidation too.’

  ‘You’ll be fine. There’s nothing to fear down there and you’ve got Ella and Gillian to help you adjust.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Aneka replied, but she was more worried about the tests being planned for her than adjusting to a new society.

  Flight 109B

  If the naval station at Harriamon was huge, the orbital transfer station they had passed through to board the shuttle down to New Earth was enormous. It had a staff of around ten thousand permanently on station, two hotels, a hospital, a park! There were ships moving in and out of it constantly, with places for two vessels larger than it to dock outside the hull. And it was just one of two such stations in geosynchronous orbit over the planet.

  Aneka had taken the window seat when they got aboard the shuttle and watched as the huge station receded from them. Now her attention was focussed instead on the planet, New Earth, her new home since someone had incinerated the last one.


  She had to admit, to a lay-person, it looked a pretty good match. The air pressure was higher, but the gravity was essentially identical and it looked to be the same size. There was no Moon; no moons of any kind, in fact, unless you counted the artificial ones. It seemed to have more or less the same amount of land surface. The land looked a deeper green in places, presumably from more plant life. The night side did not show as much city light as she would have expected. The data she had read said that the planet had a population of around twenty-five million, which was significantly lower than the seven billion Old Earth had had.

  ‘What do you think?’ Ella said from the seat beside her.

  ‘It’s… beautiful. I never saw the old one from space. I mean, hardly anyone had by my time. I saw pictures, videos, but never the real thing. It’s still a bit of a rush just seeing a planet from this height, but… yeah, it’s beautiful.’

  Ella grinned and undid her seat straps. ‘Come on, let’s go up to the bar.’

  The bar was a moderately large room with picture windows along the outside and a row of tables in the centre. There were no staff, just machines which dispensed small canisters of drink, but at least those were complimentary. Ella got herself something which claimed it was gin and tonic. Aneka had always hated drinking alcohol on aircraft, and now there was no point, so she got a fruit juice for something to drink and followed Ella to sit on a stool at one of the windows.

  ‘You know,’ Aneka said, ‘artificial gravity is still something of a surprise. I mean, back in my day that was real science-fiction.’

  ‘Graviton flow control technology was one of the key developments made during the early years of the Federation. I can’t imagine what spaceflight was like before it, frankly. And it makes landing these ships a whole lot easier.’

  ‘Anti-gravity? I didn’t think this thing had the acceleration to get off a planet.’

  ‘They don’t. I think a Concordia Class is rated about a hundredth of a G.’

  ‘Huh, you couldn’t lift off an asteroid with that.’ Aneka looked out at the planet below. One of the two continental landmasses was visible in daylight, a long, vaguely figure-eight shaped, dark mass set between blue oceans. ‘Is that where we’re going?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ella replied, pointing out toward the planet and then having second thoughts. ‘Well, actually, from here you can’t really see the spaceport, or the university. Um, the continent down there is called Mericiana…’ She paused as Aneka coughed. ‘…and you can see the dark strip down the east side, that’s the main city, Yorkbridge.’ Aneka was making slightly strangled noises now. ‘What’s funny?’

  ‘No idea where the names came from, have you?’

  ‘They were taken from Old Earth names, I think.’

  ‘There was a continent shaped a bit like that on Earth. It was called America, and there was a big city on the east side called New York. It had a lot of bridges.’

  Ella smirked. ‘Was it ruled by King Elvis?’

  ‘Elvis came from a place called Nashville, I think, or Memphis. I think it was Memphis. I was never a big Elvis fan. He had a good voice, sure, but not my kind of music.’

  ‘What was?’

  Aneka laughed. ‘Does it matter? None of them exist anymore. I’ll have to take the time to listen to some new stuff and see if I like it. You’re getting distracted. The spaceport?’

  ‘Oh, right. About ten kilometres off the coast there there’s a chain of islands. The largest has the university on it, along with various government buildings. The spaceport is on a smaller one further out into the ocean. The other islands out there are residential.’

  Aneka nodded. Even with her vision set to maximum magnification she could not make out any islands yet. ‘You live on one of those?’

  ‘Oh… I wish.’ Ella gave a giggle. ‘Gillian earns more than me and she can’t afford those houses. No, I live in Yorkbridge. It won’t take long to get there once we’re down. There’s a high-speed monorail system from the spaceport, through Hegemon Island to the mainland. Gillian has the longer trip. She’s out in the suburbs on the west side. I doubt you’ll find it much different from the city you used to live in though.’

  ‘I didn’t live in a city. I lived in a town called Aldershot, when I was actually home.’ She looked at Ella, who was staring at her, wide-eyed. ‘What?’

  ‘I didn’t realise you were that rich back then.’

  Aneka wrinkled her nose. ‘I was well paid, but I wasn’t rich.’

  ‘Weird. I think you’re going to find my little place a bit… rough by comparison.’

  Aneka gave her a shrug, wondering what on Earth she was letting herself in for. ‘Well, I’ve never been afraid of a bit of rough.’

  Yorkbridge Mid-town, New Earth

  “A bit rough” seemed about right as Aneka came up from the subway and found herself standing in some sort of cyberpunk future version of New York. The buildings around her were huge and dark, and little sunlight made it down to ground level. The planners in Yorkbridge seemed to think that building up was the right way to go, even though they had vast amounts of space to spread out in. Light from streetlamps and dull, red neon signs provided more illumination down here than the local star did.

  Despite the gloom, Ella had a skip in her step, and Aneka thought of the song. It’s nice to go traveling, but it’s so much nicer to come home. Mind you, Ella was not carrying her suitcase and had changed into a translucent, wrap-around top and a micro-skirt at the spaceport, so there was little to slow her down. Aneka was wearing the top and jeans they had bought on Harriamon and had been the entire time; commercial regulations did not require ship-suits be worn at all times and half the passengers on the shuttle had been in street clothes. Despite the lack of sunlight, neither were cold; New Earth had an average temperature more like the equator of Old Earth.

  ‘Almost there,’ Ella said. ‘We just need to grab one of the elevators up a few levels and we’ll be home.’

  Aneka was not entirely convinced they would make it. The change of clothes had seemed a good idea, but they were getting some interested looks from the people standing around on the streets, and those people looked more like local gang members than model citizens. Here they were, two half-dressed women, one of them carrying cases which had to have something worth stealing in them… Well, as long as they did not carry firearms they were in for a shock. Aneka reconsidered. She was a xinti combat robot with a human façade and a few newly learned tricks up her sleeves; even if they did have guns they were going to regret it.

  Except that interested looks was all they got. No one did or said anything as they walked down the street to something which looked like a heavy garage door. Aneka still watched the nearest of them as Ella pressed the button beside it and waited. After a few seconds the door opened upwards and they were able to step onto the elevator car. There was the sensation of movement and they walked out into the upper levels of the city.

  Up here the city looked like an oil refinery. Maybe less pipes, but the blocky buildings were circled by walkways at various levels and linked by bridges which could easily have belonged on an industrial plant. It was not exactly looking better than street level, but at least there was more light up here. Ella skipped off along the walkway to the right, turning onto a bridge where a couple were standing looking down at the street below. Aneka’s eyes flicked down as she turned the corner and she wondered how they could see anything. A haze cut off most of the normal light about two storeys down and Aneka could only make out people by their heat signatures.

  The couple looked like street punks, him in a camo-textured tank top and leather jeans, her in what could have been biker leathers and a top which looked like a fine nylon mesh. He had the look of a man in love with his body, and making sure it had as much muscle-mass as possible. Easily six-foot-six, his tank top was stretched over a frame which would have given a young Arnold Schwarzenegger a run for his money. His heavy-set face was softened a little by his long, dark brown hair tied into a pon
y-tail. He had a dragon tattooed over his left bicep; not bad ink either. She had an oriental skin tone, but distinctly occidental features, and she looked like she worked out while he was pumping iron. Her body showed great muscle tone, and she had a narrow face with high cheekbones and pouting lips. Her blonde hair was formed into tight dreadlocks. Through the mesh of her top Aneka could see what looked like Chinese characters tattooed on her back.

  Ella appeared to know them. ‘Hey Katelyn, hey Dillon.’

  ‘You’re back then?’ Katelyn said. She had a soft, sexy voice, deeper than Aneka would have expected with a slight burr which gave it an exotic hint. ‘You got a new friend, too.’

  ‘Uh-huh and yup. This is Aneka. She’s staying with me for a while. Can’t stop, I’ll drop by and catch up later.’ She carried on past them to a door set into one of the old brick walls, pressing her hand to a panel beside it. Aneka saw the authentication pulse from the ident scanner just before the door slid upward to let them in.

  The interior corridors looked far better than the outside of the building. The paintwork looked fresh, if rather institutional. There was a flight of stairs in front of them and Ella started up it. ‘Kate and Dillon live on this floor,’ she said, ‘we’re above.’

  ‘They seemed… nice.’

  ‘Oh, they are. Dillon’s a little obsessed with his weights, but that has some advantages.’

  ‘What was tattooed on her back? It looked like Chinese, but I thought everyone spoke Federal.’

  ‘Hmm? Oh! It’s Federal, but it’s written in Hani. It’s an ideogram set that used to be used during the Long Dark for just about everything. Still is for Rimmic. Uh, that’s an old language still spoken on the Rim. Hani use died back a bit when communication speeds improved. It can be transmitted in far more compact form than Latin script, but you have to know how to read it. It still gets used for advertising, signs… and tattoos. You should learn it.’