Steel Beneath the Skin

by Niall Teasdale

‘Are you sure this is wise?’ Al asked as Aneka turned down a narrow alley between two tower blocks.

  ‘They aren’t going to use anything lethal on me,’ Aneka replied silently. ‘If they wanted me dead they could have used a laser rifle or something. These two are carrying handguns at best. I’m giving them a chance to try to grab me. If they do, then they’re bad guys.’ She slipped her hand into her bag, closing it around the grip of her gun. A thought switched the weapon to non-lethal mode.

  ‘If they don’t?’

  ‘I’ll lose them before I head over to Gillian’s place.’

  ‘You are not invulnerable, you know? You are heavily armoured, especially your skull, but there are weak points. Your skin is bullet-proof, but it’s flexible armour…’

  ‘So sufficiently large blunt trauma could cause damage. Yes, but they’d need to know what I was for that and I don’t think they…’ She stopped as something stung her back; a burst of electrical discharge which danced across her bare skin and a warning regarding a charged particle attack flashed in-vision. She turned, dropping to one knee to make a smaller target, and brought her pistol up and around.

  The two stalkers had the kind of look on their faces their compatriots with the sonic carbines had had; bemused astonishment. They were both carrying slim, nasty-looking pistols which Aneka figured were blasters set to stun. Range: 21 yards. Target immobile. She fired, the crack of the discharge barely louder than a silenced pistol, though it echoed in the narrow confines of the alley. One of the two men, probably the one who had fired, jerked violently and then collapsed backward onto the paving stones.

  His friend fired back, the pulse of charged particles going well wide from the panicked aim. Aneka’s pistol swung toward him and he threw himself sideways just as she fired. He was not so lucky with her third shot and a second later he was lying on the ground beside his friend, twitching slightly.

  Getting to her feet, Aneka walked over to the fallen men and checked their pockets. They had no identifying documents on them, not uncommon, but their transponders were not responding to requests either and they had nothing at all on them aside for the blasters and shoulder-holsters. She took the guns, taking each by the muzzle to slip into her bag, and then went back down the alley the way she had come. Maybe Winter could have their fingerprints checked, if they did that sort of thing these days.

  ‘We’re just leaving them there?’ Al asked.

  ‘I know what they look like and they’re disarmed. And I have cooking to do. If I get the cops involved I’ll be stuck in an interview room for hours. Again.’

  ‘You’re going straight there? Dressed like that?’

  Aneka laughed as she turned onto the street, causing a couple of people to grin at her, even if they did not know what the joke was. ‘What are you? My mother?’

  Tristar Township.

  Aneka followed her navigation system out from the subway station, heading about a mile west to the low wall and fence, and the gatehouse which allowed you through and into Tristar Township. It was, basically, a gated community similar to the ones you could have found dotted around America in her time. There was a stiff-looking man in the gatehouse who gave her a look which suggested that maybe she should have changed clothes. When her identity interrogation pulse apparently indicated that she was allowed through he looked almost disappointed.

  ‘You’re cleared through to Doctor Gilroy’s house. Straight in, second left, keep going to the end of the road.’

  Aneka gave him a smile. ‘Thank you.’ Then she headed on through the slalom of pedestrian gates and carried on walking down the main road through the town.

  There were a few shops along this road, interspersed with high walls with houses behind them, and she stopped off at one of them to buy a bottle of wine, noting the hike in prices, before carrying on to the second road on the left. Here the houses had open fronts, usually with large lawns. Few of the buildings had more than one storey, but they seemed quite large, probably at least three bedrooms. The walls, the visible ones anyway, were all painted over with cream-coloured material giving a stucco effect. The spectral image Aneka was getting suggested Plascrete rather than any form of plaster; the combination of ceramic and polymer was quite distinctive.

  She saw almost no one as she walked down the road. There were no children about, though she spotted one girl sunbathing on the lawn, and she looked young. There was a hint of teenage ganglyness about her, and she was lying naked on a lounger in full sight of the street which suggested a hint of teenage rebellion. The girl either did not see or ignored Aneka as she walked past. A man parking his car five doors down gave Aneka a look which was meant to be disdainful, but just managed to look hungry.

  The road widened into a circular area, Aneka’s navigation system pointing her at the house right at the end as the guard had indicated. That was when Aneka spotted the only other person; one of Gillian’s neighbours was peeking around a curtain. She probably would not have noticed if the nosy neighbour’s heat signature had not given him away.

  As she walked up to the door Al flashed up a message indicating that he had responded to an identity check for her, and the door slid open on silent runners. Good quality mechanics; it had not occurred to her that the door to Ella’s apartment gave a slight hiss when it opened. She carried on in and the door slid closed behind her.

  ‘Good afternoon, Miss Jansen.’ The voice was soft and female, and came from concealed speakers. ‘Doctor Gilroy has given you guest access to the house and instructed me to show you through to the kitchen.’ The room she was in was basically a hallway which seemed to run the length of the building from one side to another. Opposite Aneka, the plain, cream wall changed, displaying a moving arrow which pointed to the right.

  Aneka smiled. ‘Thank you.’ She started off in the indicated direction. ‘Do you have a name?’

  ‘I am designated House Two-three-nine,’ the house answered. ‘You may call me House.’

  Aneka passed a couple of doors on her left, but kept going, following the dancing arrow. ‘Pleased to meet you, House. You should get Gillian to give you a proper name. Mind you, “House” is better than “Computer,” I guess.’

  ‘I believe so, Miss Jansen.’

  ‘She’s non-volitional,’ Al commented. ‘She’d likely agree with you if you said “Dung” was a good name.’

  Trying not to grin too much, Aneka walked through into a large, open, lounge. Ahead of her was a sunken area with seating around it and what looked like a padded floor. The expanse of wall it encircled suggested an entertainment area. Part of it lit up to show a left-pointing arrow and, sure enough, Aneka turned to find a dining area at the back of the house next to a kitchen half as big as the lounge.

  Aneka’s smile grew. ‘Oh… this is perfect. I’d cook more often with a kitchen like this.’

  ‘Thank you, Miss Jansen. It is nice to be appreciated.’

  Aneka put her bag down on the large, granite surface which formed the centre of the kitchen. ‘My pleasure.’

  ~~~

  ‘This is… actually very nice,’ Gillian said.

  ‘You don’t have to sound quite so surprised,’ Aneka replied, grinning. If she had to say so herself, the curry had come out tasting more or less how she had wanted, and it was quite nice. ‘We didn’t manufacture our food out of dirt, y’know?’

  ‘What did you say it was again?’ Ella asked.

  ‘Thai Green Curry, more or less.’

  ‘More or less?’

  ‘Well… You don’t have chickens, so I used mycoprotein and I had to substitute for… well, pretty much all the herbs. You still have peppercorns and soy sauce, and something enough like olive oil to be workable… And rice, you still have rice. But you’re eating almost an authentic, Old Earth meal.’

  ‘I like it,’ Ella said. ‘We don’t get much in the way of spicy food these days.’

  ‘Speak for yourself,’ Gillian replied. ‘I cook quite a lot of spicy food. I just didn’t know you liked it.’


  Ella giggled around a mouthful of curry. ‘I didn’t either.’

  ‘First time for everything,’ Aneka said. ‘I should point out that this is only traditional English food in that we adopted anything we liked from all over the place. Curry we got from India.’

  ‘The British Empire,’ Gillian put in.

  ‘Yup. Responsible for the English obsession with curry, and the invention of gin and tonic. We screwed up an entire subcontinent, but we got food and drink out of it.’

  ‘I’d imagine we could do quite well on an Old Earth cookbook. If you could remember the recipes.’

  ‘I’d probably drive myself insane trying to replicate the flavours. How’s the xinti archive coming along?’

  ‘Well. No recipes yet, but a lot of very interesting historical data. I discovered a database of xinti colonies and bases which the computer is currently searching for places we don’t know about.’

  ‘If you find any?’

  ‘We see about mounting an expedition.’

  ‘Isn’t that kind of dangerous? I mean, aside from the possibility of booby-traps, and robots, there’s the Herosians to consider.’

  ‘We won’t tell the Herosians,’ Ella replied.

  ‘That’s pretty much the plan,’ Gillian agreed. ‘As for the other stuff, that’s why we’ll have you, Bash, and Monkey along. With three facilitators we’ll probably be able to take a larger team. I think I can get the budget out of Barriman.’ She laughed. ‘I’ll sleep with him if it’ll get me the budget for that.’

  ‘Any word of those men who are after you?’ Ella asked. Aneka had had to tell her all about it; it was a warning if nothing else.

  ‘I left a couple of them unconscious in an alley before coming here. They’ve moved up to blasters set on stun.’

  ‘Trying a different way to incapacitate you,’ Gillian suggested.

  ‘Uh-huh. Electrical discharge, at least at that level, doesn’t work on me either. Al says I’m not invulnerable. I guess a big enough electric charge could disable me, but if they keep this up they’re wasting their time.’

  ‘You be careful,’ Ella told her, frowning. ‘Aside from anything else, I’ve just found curry and you’re the only person I know of who cooks it.’ The frown turned into a grin. ‘Is your hot tub working, Doc?’

  ‘The house turned it on when we arrived.’

  ‘Fridgy! We can finish the wine off there.’

  Aneka gave her an innocent look. ‘But I didn’t bring a swimsuit.’

  ~~~

  No one else was wearing anything either and the bubbling, hot water did feel good. Aneka did not get aches anymore, but she could imagine them drifting away in the heat. Something was preying on her mind, however.

  ‘There’s something I want to bring up,’ she said after about thirty minutes of soaking and chatting.

  ‘That sounds serious,’ Ella replied. ‘Drink more wine.’

  ‘I don’t get drunk, remember? It is serious… and it’s not. Doctor Wallace found something in the scans he took of me. Some artificial glands. They produce… well, pheromones. Chemicals designed to change the behaviour of people around me. Apparently they can induce trust, enforce dominance, and… generate lust.’

  Ella’s brow wrinkled for a second. ‘So?’

  ‘I’d imagine,’ Gillian said, ‘that Aneka is worried that she has used these pheromones on us. That your attraction to her is the result of them.’

  ‘I understand that,’ Ella replied, ‘but that’s so much, what do you call it, bullshit?’

  ‘You seem pretty sure,’ Aneka said.

  ‘I wanted you the first time I laid eyes on you.’ She looked to Gillian for confirmation.

  ‘It’s true,’ the doctor replied. ‘You know how transparent she is. I could see her drooling over the idea of taking you to bed when you were still in isolation. Have you actually activated these glands?’

  ‘Apparently,’ Aneka replied, glad she could not blush, ‘the sex pheromones are released when I have sex.’

  ‘I knew things got wild faster than usual!’ Ella exclaimed. She giggled. ‘Don’t worry about it. We haven’t even got near what I’m happy doing so you haven’t pushed me to anything extreme.’

  ‘Still,’ Gillian said, ‘I think we’ll keep this ability quiet. Not everyone will react to the possibility that they were influenced as well as Ella has.’

  Aneka nodded. ‘Now I know about it I can control it, so I won’t be using it. So I guess I’m okay with people not knowing.’ Her eyes flicked to Ella, who was grinning. ‘What?’

  ‘I don’t mind you using the sex one. That could be great at parties.’

  Gillian laughed. ‘I don’t think many people will mind you using that one.’

  Yorkbridge Mid-town, 15.6.524 FSC.

  It had been quite a long day. A pretty long night too. They had woken up mid-morning after spending half the night pleasuring each other in various ways, and Gillian had come into town with them to do some shopping. Aneka had managed to escape with just a new mini-dress that Ella had forced on her. She had to admit it was a nice dress; long-sleeved, tight-fitting, and composed of lace.

  With the purchase-fest concluded, Gillian came back to Ella’s apartment with them for coffee. Aneka was lugging several of the bags, because she had artificial muscles which did not mind the weight and did not tire as quickly. She did, however, make sure that her own bag with its hidden gun was ready on top. She was constantly looking around for signs of her stalkers, and she knew Ella had picked up on it. Her friend seemed to be a little worried, but not nervous. Aneka was a professional and she knew what she was doing, and that had been transmitted as well.

  It happened as Ella was reaching for the door entry panel to the apartment building. Part of the brickwork just above the panel exploded into dust, followed a fraction of a second later by a loud crack. ‘Inside!’ Aneka snapped as she dropped to one knee, pulling her gun from her bag. She was aware of Al activating the door control by remote and her two friends stumbling inside, but she was more concerned with the shooter. Al threw up a display indicating the target area the sound had come from and Aneka used the high-magnification display from her pistol to scan it.

  Then she saw it. On a balcony attached to the side of another tower block a man was dismantling a long-barrelled sniper rifle of some sort. Weapon identification: electromagnetic acceleration rifle. Range: 500 metres. Warning: range exceeds maximum for full effect. It meant that there was some chance the anti-matter pulse from her gun would degrade to ineffectiveness before it hit its target. She took her time, focussing on her target, letting her body relax into the shot, aiming for centre mass above the railing, and then squeezed off three rounds. Through the viewfinder of her gun she watched as the man’s chest was ripped open. He looked shocked for a fraction of a second as the first bolt hit him, and his rifle slipped from his fingers. Then the light went out of his eyes and he staggered back against the wall of the building, slipping down to the floor and leaving a bloody smear in his wake.

  ‘Al, call the Peacekeepers and get a message through to that address Winter gave us,’ Aneka said.

  ‘The Peacekeepers aren’t going to be pleased.’

  ‘I know. Just do it before someone else calls them.’ Aneka pushed her pistol back into her bag, grabbed everything else, and hurried inside.

  ‘Are you okay?!’ Ella squeaked from the staircase.

  ‘Me, I’m fine. The sniper is a bloody smear on a wall.’ She started for the stairs. ‘I’ll dump this stuff and then come back to wait for the cops. Put the coffee on. I’ve never met a policeman who didn’t appreciate a cup of coffee.’

  ~~~

  Peace Officer Attica Barlow did, indeed, appreciate the coffee. She did not seem to be appreciating having to sit around Ella’s apartment making sure that Aneka went nowhere while they waited for an investigator to arrive. Her presence did give Aneka a chance to examine a Peacekeeper up close. She did not expect to have to go up against one of them, but
the information was always worth having.

  Barlow was not especially tall, but her body was all lean muscle. She was quite happy to talk about her training, which included armed and unarmed combat. Not that she was usually unarmed; she carried an electro-shock stun baton on her left thigh, and an electro-laser beam pistol on her right hip, and she was trained with both. Her training did not include investigating crimes, and also did not seem to cover much more than handling drunks, traffic accidents, fires, and similar minor emergencies. Barlow was actually unusual in that she had done a terrorism awareness course a couple of years earlier, but it was not much use since they just did not get terrorists on New Earth. Still, she was interested as well as a little frustrated at not being able to look into it further.

  ‘Someone shot at you with a hypervelocity railgun, tried to kill you, and you don’t know who or why?’

  ‘That’s a sniper weapon, right?’ Aneka replied with a question.

  ‘Old style, yes. Modern military snipers use lasers.’

  ‘So, he didn’t try to kill me.’

  Ella looked up at that. ‘He didn’t?’

  ‘If he was trying to kill me, he’d have shot me in the back, or the head. He wasn’t trying to kill any of us, he was trying to scare us. Scare me.’

  ‘It doesn’t appear to have worked,’ Barlow commented.

  ‘I sent them a message back.’

  ‘Thank you, Officer Barlow, that will be all.’ The voice came from the apartment’s doorway. Aneka had heard the slight hiss from the actuators and knew it was coming. Everyone else jumped. Winter was dressed in a Peacekeeper uniform again. She walked into the room every bit the confident detective. Ella and Gillian glanced at Aneka and she narrowed her brow in a signal to say nothing.

  ‘You’re taking this, Investigator… Special Investigator Drew?’ Barlow asked.

  Winter nodded. ‘Special circumstances. Miss Jansen is considered politically important.’

  ‘Right, the whole “girl from Old Earth” thing. Okay. Good luck with the case.’ Barlow made her way out and Winter waited for her to be out of the room and the door closed behind her before saying anything else.