‘The Pinnacle does not scare easily. We analysed your attack. You had significant time to install the device you used to detonate that star, and you cleared the civilians from the system before you set it off. You wouldn’t use it on an inhabited system. Oh, you’ll kill a few soldiers, but–’
‘Do shut up. Speaker? Are you all right to go back to Gwy?’
Speaker pulled himself upright and gave her a smile. ‘I believe so, Aneka. Thank you for your concern.’ He climbed to his feet and the damaged circuitry in his stomach became visible.
‘You… You’re a robot?!’ Perinot said.
‘An autonomous android construct,’ Speaker replied, ‘running a fragmentary form of my primary program.’ He looked at Aneka. ‘I must say I begin to see why Winter finds this so attractive. There is a limitation to the reduced form which makes one feel more…’
‘Human?’ Aneka suggested.
‘Perhaps. I’ll see you back on board.’ Turning, he walked back through the door they had entered by, ignoring the men aiming guns at him.
‘Okay,’ Aneka said, walking over and sitting down on the edge of the table. ‘Yes, he’s a fragment of one of the AIs who basically run the Collective. Even if you’d managed to trash that body, you’d have been killing… a clone.’
‘You’re ruled over by machines?’ Perinot asked, disgust evident in his voice.
‘Not really. They run things. They make sure the place works. All the governments of the Collective retain their sovereignty. Shadataga advises, and it’s generally very good advice, but people are free to ignore it, within certain limitations anyway. We don’t allow the use of our weapons systems, like the one we used on Haven’s star, which required about twenty minutes to initiate, by the way.’
‘Real Humans would never be controlled–’
‘Stop it! The AIs don’t even want to control us, and you’re no more a “real Human” than most of the other offshoots of Humanity that arose after the Xinti War. Most of the people left on Earth have less genetic modification than the Pinnacle. You’re bulked up, your bodies heal faster, and your women are engineered to be beautiful. You turned yourselves into ideal, stereotyped Humans, not “real” ones.’
Perinot’s finger tightened on the trigger. Aneka watched him for a second and then said, ‘That pop-gun is not going to hurt me. I could take every last one of you apart with my bare hands and there’s nothing you could do to stop me, so listen carefully. The people with their fingers on the trigger of that star killer are AIs. They’re nice people, and they detest loss of life. That in itself makes them better than you. However, they tend to work on checks and balances. If wiping out your home star system stops a war before it starts, they will do it. They will turn your Olympus into Hades. So you come no closer to Earth than you have already. If you put up another border station, we will destroy it. If you try to claim another planet this side of the galaxy, we will take out three of your core systems. And stay off Oberian. I already wiped your spies out there. Oh, and I’ve infiltrated two of your border stations and killed everyone in one of them, and I hit your base on Ranson. That was me, on my own, and if I have to come back here to do the work again, I’ll be really pissed off.’
She got to her feet and started for the door. ‘Take that back to your Pinnacle Commander and hope they don’t shoot messengers.’
Shadataga, 21.3.560 FSC.
‘Do you think they’ll accept it?’ Abby asked. They were in the operations room again. Discussing the Pinnacle again.
‘Only time will tell,’ Speaker replied. ‘I believe we have made our point. I suspect they will try to find ways to circumvent our prohibitions.’
‘And I have probes stationed in every strategic system they might decide to move into,’ Winter added. ‘If they make a move, we should know about it.’
‘Ana is going to be gathering intel whenever she can,’ Aneka said. ‘She’ll funnel that back to us when she gets it.’
Abby grinned. ‘Not us, exactly.’
‘Winter,’ Aneka amended. ‘We will be out of the picture for a while. You’re sure you can manage without us, Winter?’
‘I managed for five hundred years before you were available,’ the AI replied. ‘I should be able to handle things. Besides, if they do get out of hand, we promised them rather more drastic action than you can provide. It’ll be down to War and Reality.’
‘Do you have a plan for where you’ll go first?’ Speaker asked.
‘We’re going out as far as we can by wormhole,’ Ella said. ‘There’s a system we got wind of that sounds promising. Then we’ll work our way back the slow way. If we need to change plans, we’re going to have wormhole check-ins every couple of weeks while we’re in a system so we can inform you, and if we’re really needed back here, you should know where we’ll be.’
‘Only in dire emergency,’ Winter said. ‘I’m going to miss you all, even if I can handle things without you.’
‘At least it won’t be a thousand years before we see each other again this time,’ Aneka said.
‘It better not be.’
‘I just jinxed this entire thing, didn’t I?’
‘You’d better not have.’
G9972 System, 5th Planet, 1.4.560 FSC.
Gwy glided delicately into a landing in the clearing which occupied the centre of the island. It was not fully dark: light was showing in the sky to the west where the local sun would be rising shortly, and the trees were an iridescent purple which would lighten a little in daylight.
Aneka and Ella stepped out onto grass which was a deeper red. The local flora had a large quantity of a protein which absorbed heavily in the blue-and-green spectrum which tended to make it red or purple in colour. It looked alien, which was just fine by them.
Cassandra had more or less insisted that they go down to the planet alone. They had wanted to be the first ones down. Officially it was an initial survey to determine how to use the other team members, but really it was just to be there, by themselves, on a brand new world. Cassandra counted as one of them, but she had said she would supervise on the ship and that Aneka and Ella deserved this one to themselves. Even Al was staying quiet.
‘This way,’ Ella said, noting the schematic of the island in her vision field and starting off through the trees. Gwy’s quick scan of the place, a mid-sized lump of rock in the middle of an ocean which covered more or less the entire planet, had revealed some interesting shapes among the trees. They were all around them, but the largest grouping was dead ahead.
Even in the early hours it was not cold. The world had conditions very close to those of Earth: about five per cent more gravity and a small commensurate increase in air pressure, and a closer orbit around a slightly cooler star. Ella had decided to screw both official protocols and past history and was dressed in a cropped T-shirt and shorts because when the sun came up it was going to get fairly humid among the trees.
They stopped as they came face-to-face with a huge, carved stone statue hidden among the trees. It was maybe two metres high and vaguely reptilian, though it was difficult to tell because it was badly weathered. There was a suggestion of a broad muzzle and eyes set wide apart on the head, thickly muscled arms and legs, and a stocky body.
‘This is old,’ Aneka said. ‘That looks like granite and it doesn’t weather fast.’
Ella took a handheld scanner from her belt and scanned it over the statue. ‘Preliminary results, of course, but it was probably carved over fifty thousand years ago. It’s well pre-Human civilisation.’
‘This place wasn’t a colony then.’
‘Sparse land and pretty average mineral resources, not exactly a prime candidate for a colony. And it’s a long way from Old Earth.’
‘Two hundred and twenty-five parsecs, give or take. How did we find out about this place anyway?’
‘Believe it or not, it was in some Pinnacle records. They looked it over, noted the ruins and the difficulty in extracting minerals and decided it wasn’t worth the bo
ther.’
‘Oh, so they are useful for something then?’
‘Everything’s useful for something, even if it’s just recycling.’ Ella set off past the statue.
Aneka followed behind. ‘Maybe, though I’ve never been sure about lawyers.’
Ella giggled, but they were coming across more stones now and her more professional brain was taking an interest. ‘Looks like they were buildings, once. I assume they’re contemporary with the statue so it’s not a major surprise they’ve collapsed.’
‘There looks like there are more upright stones just ahead.’
Pushing through a small group of bushes revealed a structure, maybe three metres high and broad. The formation suggested that it had been the base of something larger.
‘Step pyramid, maybe,’ Aneka suggested. ‘Like in South America.’
‘It’s a relatively stable design.’
‘The pyramids in Egypt lasted a good few thousand years. Nothing like fifty, but quite a while. I wonder if they’re still standing.’
‘Maybe Abby knows. Boost me up. I want to get a look at the top.’
Each layer was a metre high and Ella could have managed herself, but Aneka was the easy option, and anyway, it felt rather good being lifted up by her. A minute of giggling and clambering and they were on the upper platform, which was strewn with rocks and a couple of large pieces which were likely masonry, and they were level with the tops of the trees. Aneka looked out towards the west as Ella scanned over the platform, doing a first-stage mapping as well as a basic analysis.
‘It is basically granite. Cutting that must have been fun. The technology doesn’t look excessively sophisticated.’
In the west the sky was brightening more, a telltale glow suggesting that the sun was about to break over the horizon.
‘We’ll get everyone down here while the drones do a proper planetary survey,’ Ella continued. ‘That should make an interesting–’ She stopped as she felt Aneka’s body against her back. ‘That feels nice.’
Aneka turned, pulling Ella around with her, and then lowered them both down to the rock platform. When they were sitting, Aneka’s thighs around Ella’s hips, Aneka slid her hands over Ella’s bare stomach and whispered, ‘Just sit and watch. Don’t think.’
Ella put her scanner down and looked up at the growing light. ‘I can do that.’
There were particulates in the upper atmosphere. The scanners had noted them in passing as Gwy had flown in, but they cleared lower down and had not been a concern. Now, as the first sharp spark of light flared over the horizon, they turned it into a brilliant red flame. The thick, glossy leaves on the trees went from a deep purple to a redder, fiery colour as though the whole island was alight.
‘Oh…’ Ella breathed. Aneka’s hands slid up under her top and she gasped.
‘Sometimes,’ Aneka said, ‘you have to sit down and just look at what you have around you. Appreciate what’s there without analysing it.’
‘I’m appreciating a lot right now, but if you keep doing that, I’m going to want to do very unprofessional things on an archaeological site.’
Aneka shifted her hands, lifting the T-shirt up and over Ella’s head. The sunlight was warm on her skin and she sighed. ‘Good,’ Aneka said softly.
###
About the Author
I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.
Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.
I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.
Writing, sadly, is not my main source of income. By day, I’m a computer programmer. I work for a telecommunications company in Manchester, England. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.
For More Information
The Thaumatology Blog: http://thaumatology.wordpress.com
The Steel Beneath the Skin Blog: http://steelbeneaththeskin.wordpress.com
Other Books by this Author
See amazon.com/author/niallteasdale.
The Thaumatology Series
Thaumatology 101
Demon’s Moon
Legacy
Dragon’s Blood
Disturbia
Hammer of Witches
Eagle’s Shadow
Ancient
Dragonfall
The Other Side of Hell
For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
Vengeance
Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe
Tales from High Towers’ Study
Tales from the Dubh Linn
The Aneka Jansen Books
Steel Beneath The Skin
The Cold Steel Mind
Steel Heart
The Winter War
The Greatest Heights of Honour
The Lowest Depths of Shame
The Ultrahuman Books
Ugly
The Unobtainium Books
Kate on a Hot Tin Roof
Aneka Jansen 7: Hope Page 25