Steel Beneath the Skin

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Miss Jansen,’ the lizard-man said, ‘your discovery has caused much concern among my people.’ He did not hiss or lisp as he spoke. Aneka was a little disappointed. ‘Discovered aboard a xinti vessel which we have been refused access to. We do not know how the Xinti might have influenced you, what you still might do under their direction.’ His head did weave and bob slightly as he spoke, his tongue darting out. She figured he was trying to determine whether he made her nervous.

  ‘Ambassador D’Jarnis, I believe,’ Aneka replied since the man had not been polite enough to give his name.

  ‘Indeed.’ He was not exactly easy to read, but she got the impression he would have preferred that she did not know his name.

  ‘As I understand it, you don’t “want access” to the ship I was on, or me, you want possession. The authorities here seem quite happy that I am no danger to anyone and the Xinti were unable to complete the brainwashing they had planned for me. The ship has been dead for eleven centuries, along with its crew, so it is no danger to anyone either.’

  D’Jarnis’ tongue flicked rapidly. ‘We cannot be sure of your loyalties without proper testing. If a xinti were here in place of myself, would you slay him or obey him?’

  ‘Neither,’ Aneka replied and she leaned forward, placing her lips close to one of the man’s ears. ‘I’ve had a lot of testing, physical and mental. In simulation I shot the first xinti I recognised, but I now regret that. It was far too quick. I was trained in various ways of making your last hours very painful, Ambassador. Don’t think I wouldn’t be willing to kill, slowly.’ Straightening up, she stepped around the herosian and continued on to Gillian and Ella.

  ‘Your first real alien,’ Ella said. ‘What did you think?’

  ‘About as much fun as a poke in the eye. Do the armbands mean anything?’

  Ella bit back a giggle. Gillian’s smirk spoke volumes. ‘The silver indicates that he’s unmated. The gold trim indicates he has rank. You should meet Adjaxis,’ the Doctor said, ‘he’s a bit boring, but he’s quite pleasant. You handled Hunter’s question quite well.’

  ‘Thanks. I must admit, it’s a little weird how people always seem to romanticise the past. Nothing new. People were romanticising the Sixties by the time we got to the Nineties.’

  ‘The “sixties”?’ Ella asked.

  ‘The nineteen-sixties. Supposedly one-thousand and sixty years since the birth of Christ. It was twenty-eleven when I was kidnapped.’

  Gillian sighed. ‘Over two-thousand years of history we have next to no idea about. It’s depressing.’

  Aneka patted her shoulder. ‘Have another drink. Enough alcohol and you’ll forget all about it.’

  ~~~

  Charles Hunter was a good looking man, but that was nothing special. He seemed rather more conservative than the rest of the jenlay at the gathering; less inclined to flirt, dressed in clothes which did not show off his body, despite the fact that he seemed to have a firmly muscled frame under his suit.

  His partner was another matter. As tall as Aneka, and possessed of a fit, toned body with wide hips and a large chest, Andromeda Parry was dressed in a fitted micro-dress in a silver-blue mesh fabric which left little to the imagination. Her long, blonde hair was tied into a plait which ran down her back to her waist. She had the look of a professional soldier. Steely blue eyes watched everyone who got within a few metres of Hunter.

  Aneka had been carefully avoiding them for over an hour, and taking her time to examine them. She had come to the conclusion that there was something not right about Parry, but nothing she could put her finger on. Hunter was simply a political animal who had never been selected for politics. She knew she could not avoid them entirely, and eventually she ran into them.

  ‘Miss Jansen,’ Hunter said, his smile of welcome not coming near his eyes, ‘such a pleasure to meet a genuine human.’

  ‘There are plenty of genuine humans around, Mister Hunter,’ Aneka replied. ‘Even if they call themselves something else.’

  His smile became indulgent. ‘You’re from a time before genetic manipulation, when humans were really human…’

  ‘Would you mind if I asked how old you are, Mister Hunter?’

  He raised an eyebrow. ‘Eighty-six.’

  ‘And looking so good on it. In my day an eighty-six year-old was planning their funeral. A “genuine human” would live a quarter as long as you will. Assuming some disease you’re basically immune to didn’t get them first. I doubt you’d want to go back to that.’

  ‘Simply unlocking the potential of the genome,’ Hunter replied dismissively. ‘Humans have come a long way, I agree, but now we are being held back.’

  ‘Really? I understood the Jenlay represented the largest portion of the Federation.’

  ‘We do, but we sit in council with paranoid lizards and an ancient race so wrapped up in their own survival that they refuse to progress. Humans need to strike out, get back some of the pioneering spirit of your time when we took the newly discovered warp drives and went out to the stars.’

  ‘A little after my time, but okay. Except that we got those warp drives from an alien race, didn’t we? Maybe we need more cooperation, not less.’

  He had been expecting her to be more receptive to his ideas; she could see it in the way his jaw hardened and his eyes flashed. Hunter had a temper, but he also had Parry there to keep it in check. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder and his face calmed. ‘You’ve barely lived in this century. I’m quite sure you’ll change your mind once you’ve been here for a while. We’ll talk again.’

  Aneka walked away hoping really hard that he was wrong and they would not. Mostly she had been wandering around saying hello to people and fielding the odd question, almost universally about how she was coping with her new environment. It seemed like no one really knew how to talk to her unless they had an agenda. She had been billed as the woman from the past, and she was not wearing animal furs and speaking in grunts. Expectations had not been met and no one knew what to do with her. Picking up a glass of wine from one of the tables, she smiled at a couple who were watching her as though she might suddenly revert to walking on her knuckles, and turned to find her vision filled with blue sparkles.

  Adjaxis, the torem ambassador to New Earth, was tall the way Abraham Wallace was. She came up to the torem’s shoulder, barely. Torem came from a low gravity world, originally, and followed the tall, slim model of body design. They took it somewhat to extremes with extended fingers which Aneka reckoned could have wrapped comfortably around her skull. Adjaxis’ face was relatively featureless, small, but with slightly enlarged, entirely black eyes. He was wearing a thick, blue and white bodysuit made of iridescent fabric. Even his head was encased in it with only his face showing.

  ‘My apologies, Miss Jansen,’ he said, stepping back. He had a soft, pleasant voice, deeper than Aneka expected. ‘Torem spend much of their time on spaceships and habitats. We forget jenlay concepts of personal space at times.’

  Aneka looked up and gave him a smile. ‘It’s more a question of neck strain, sir.’

  The ambassador made a guttural noise which Aneka took to be laughter. ‘But one of the results of coming from a species born in low gravity. The other is that I find moving painful without this suit. I won’t ask how you’re settling in, you must be utterly tired of that question.’

  ‘I’m running out of ways to say “fine” in more than one word.’

  ‘Quite. I am interested, however. What do you think of this new world you find yourself in?’

  Aneka frowned, considering her answer. ‘When I was… taken by the Xinti, we had Global Warming, various states building nuclear weapons, wars, developing biotechnology that could have created lethal viruses. I was hoping I’d be dead before we wiped ourselves out. Now look at us…’ She waved her hand at the people in the Grand Hall. ‘Mankind, out among the stars. It’s different, but we haven’t evolved into something I don’t recognise. Jenlay are brighter, live longer. They’ve conquered d
isease, and they’re basically at peace. And I’m alive to see it. It’s better than I could have hoped for.’ She grinned. ‘Of course, my ancestors seem to have become mildly sex-obsessed peacocks, but I can learn to live with that.’

  He gave her a quizzical look. ‘I’m not exactly sure what a peacock is.’

  ‘It was a large, flightless bird. The males had huge, multi-coloured tails which they showed off to the females as a big fan.’

  ‘Ah, I believe I take your meaning.’

  A voice came from behind the torem, ‘Ambassador, Ambassador Adjaxis…’

  Adjaxis closed his eyes and his head dropped slightly; it was a rather human gesture of resignation. ‘Sadly,’ he said quietly, ‘some of your fellows can try the patience.’

  A man in a long, white robe appeared beside them. Aneka had never seen a modern jenlay male who looked so effeminate. He was good-looking enough, but shorter than was typical and young-looking to the point of cute. He had blonde hair, cut short, and sparkling blue eyes, and he carried himself with the kind of posture you saw on camp comedians in the eighties. He even had heart-shaped, pouting lips. ‘Ambassador,’ the man said, ‘we were interrupted…’

  ‘Mister Smart,’ Adjaxis said, ‘have you met Miss Jansen yet? Miss Jansen, this is Wallander Smart the leader of the Children of the Universe.’

  Smart gave Aneka a smile; he was so not interested in her it was almost refreshing. ‘Good evening, Miss Jansen. I hope you’re settling in well.’

  ‘Quite well, thank you. I understand the Children of the Universe is a jenlay adaptation of torem beliefs?’ She was keeping him focussed on her; Adjaxis looked immensely relieved.

  ‘Yes. The basic tenets of the faith are that all life in the universe comes together in Vashma, the Universal Mind. When the first life began, so did Vashma. It is our duty to live as Vashma wishes us to live, treating all living things with respect, ensuring that living things progress and evolve. Through adherence to our faith we will learn our purpose, come to know Vashma and The Plan.’

  ‘The latter part,’ Adjaxis said, ‘is where we diverge. Torem are generally comfortable with knowing that everything is connected, everyone is part of the Mind. By living we serve Vashma. We see no reason to follow a specific, ritual adherence, or to proselytise our beliefs. Obviously, if asked, we explain.’

  Aneka nodded. ‘Human religion has always been a search for purpose, some greater meaning to the world. Even in my time. Of course, in my time and before it, religion has been an excuse for conflict, prejudice, persecution.’

  ‘You’re not religious yourself, then?’

  Aneka shook her head. ‘I believe in living my life the best I can. I’m… I was a soldier. I’ve killed people because I was told to, or to save other lives. I don’t think I’ve ever killed an innocent person, but I can’t be absolutely sure. One of the reasons I left the Army and got into private security work was that I could pick my own missions. I tried to stick to rescue work.’

  ‘A worthy mission,’ Adjaxis said, ‘and something there is still need of. I understand you were on Harriamon when the spaceport was attacked and hostages taken.’

  ‘Huh, yeah. We got stuck on the planet until someone went in and neutralised the terrorists.’

  ‘Someone, yes. If you’ll both excuse me, I see Senator Ollander over there and I really must talk to her.’ The tall man turned and walked away toward a tall, attractive woman in a white, translucent gown a little like Greek robes.

  ‘Nice meeting you, Mister Smart,’ Aneka said, and she turned away herself, heading for Gillian and Ella. There was no way she was going to keep chatting to Smart either.

  Yorkbridge North Beach, 11.6.524 FSC.

  The beach which ran up from Mid-town and the monorail line was, Aneka had to admit, a good place to run, or to sunbathe. Katelyn was alongside her, barefoot, but dressed in relatively modest running gear. They had left Ella a few kilometres back, lying on a towel in the sun.

  They were headed north. On their left, the city was masked by high dunes. Aneka could almost have believed they were somewhere isolated, except that they kept coming across people who did not look like they would travel miles for a beach. There were couples and families, out for a day at the beach just as Aneka would have expected to see in her time. More or less anyway; the level of intimacy between some of the couples was a little more than she would have expected at home.

  The families were interesting. Generally there was only one child, and where there were two there usually appeared to be several years between them. When you had voluntary control of your reproduction and a long lifespan, you tended to space your kids out, she guessed. Here on New Earth, those children seemed terribly well behaved too. She did see some of the older ones looking very closely at the two fit women running past, but then teenagers probably had not changed that much in a thousand years.

  Aneka had set a fair pace, even if she was running barefoot in a string bikini. Katelyn had instructions that she was to call a halt when she needed to rest, but Aneka knew her running partner would collapse before she did. Katelyn was a competitive woman; she wanted to show that she could keep up, no matter what. Aneka felt a little sorry for her since keeping up with a synthetic body was unfair, but she had said she wanted to improve her stamina.

  They were getting close to the point where Aneka was going to turn them around anyway when she saw the two men atop one of the dunes. She saw the rifles they were aiming and started to call out, but it was all a little too late. Katelyn let out a shriek and fell, sprawling in the sand. Almost at the same instant Aneka’s ears started ringing and her vision actually blurred as some sort of sonic blast hit her in the head. Katelyn was clutching her leg, but there was no blood; they were using non-lethal weapons. A robbery? No, that was stupid; what were they going to steal? A capture mission?

  Range: 20 metres. Two targets. Available weaponry: integral. The messages flickered past in-vision as Aneka started across the sand. Time to target: 4 seconds. They would be able to get more shots off; her left hand raised, her fist clenching as the force shield sprang into existence. She heard the buzz of the sonic beams as they ripped past, none impacting her shield, and hoped Katelyn was too busy with her leg to notice. The gunmen were panicking, not taking proper aim, and their targeting was off because of it. Time to target: 2 seconds. A pulse slammed into her shield, not close enough to hit home, but enough to make her react. She reached toward the shooter, fingers spread. The aiming was less than perfect, but the little force weapon was point-and-click and the gunmen were not expecting anything ranged to be thrown at them. Even from here she heard the “oof!” as the presser-pulse hit its target’s chest, but even she was surprised as he was slammed back by the force of it, tumbling out of sight behind the dune.

  A last pulse of sound battered her shield before she rammed it into the second man, pushing the barrel of his rifle aside. She had a feeling that it hurt her more than him, but it closed the distance and got her inside of the effective range of his weapon. Dropping the shield, she brought her knee up, slamming it into his stomach and heard the grunt as the air left his lungs. Aneka felt another sting as his friend fired again, clipping her left shoulder, and stepped around her current victim as he made a wild attempt to hit her with the barrel of his rifle. Her hand snapped into the side of his neck and he fell face first into the scrubby grass at the top of the dune.

  Another blast of sound hit Aneka in the chest and she turned, glaring at the second gunman. He was still prone after the shock she had given him, and her foot lashed out as he took aim once more. There was a dull ache in Aneka’s chest and she was feeling pissed off. Folding her hand into a fist, she dropped to one knee and slammed her hand down like a hammer onto the man’s chest. Once, twice, and the man stopped moving. She was not sure, but she thought she had heard ribs breaking.

  ‘I called the Peacekeepers,’ Katelyn said as Aneka got back down the dune to where she was lying. ‘They’ll be here… well, shouldn’t be long.
’

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Bloody stunners. My leg’s paralysed.’ She gave her left leg a slap. ‘It’s like when you sit on your foot for too long, but more long-lasting. I’ll be fine. What about them?’

  ‘They’ll be fine, when they wake up.’

  Katelyn looked at her, frowning. ‘I don’t know how you managed that, but it was amazing.’

  Aneka shrugged. ‘Ex-soldier. I’m used to being hit with concussion grenades.’

  Anything Katelyn might have said in reply was cut off by the roar of turbofan engines as a Peacekeeper vertol aircraft swung around and landed on the beach.

  Yorkbridge Mid-town.

  The Peacekeeper station in Mid-town was clean to the point of sterile and the air conditioning was on too high, and Aneka was sitting in an interview room in a bikini. Score one for a body designed to operate in sub-zero temperatures, but she was getting fed up with talking to people who clearly were more used to dealing with traffic problems, crashes, and the occasional fire. They just did not get the kind of crime that provided experience with violence, and they had no idea what to do with Aneka and her attackers. She had put both of them in the hospital.

  There was the amusement of watching people walking in and out of the observation room. It was hidden behind a panel like the mirrors you saw in TV programmes, except that this appeared to be a solid wall. It functioned well as a barrier to normal light, but it transmitted infra-red just fine. Aneka was sat facing it on a chromed metal seat so there was nothing to do but watch the comings and goings, which was why she noticed when the room emptied. Frowning, she looked up in time to see the lights on the four cameras go out. Somehow it was not much of a surprise when the door opened and Winter walked in.

  ‘Can’t stay out of trouble, Miss Jansen?’ the woman said as she took the seat opposite her. She was dressed in a Peacekeeper uniform; the same flack-jacket and slacks arrangement as the men had been wearing on Harriamon.