Aneka Jansen 3: Steel Heart (12 page)

‘When did you turn into Miss Marine Five-Twenty-Six?’ Aneka asked, grinning at her.

Her heart pounding, Ella managed a giggle. She knew Aneka was trying to keep her confidence up, but right now she was willing to go with it. ‘I’m so not… but I am doing better than I thought I would.’

‘You’re kicking arse, girl, and don’t you let anyone tell you different.’ Silently, she added, ‘Al, when you can contact the ship, check the surrounding area on the sensors.’

‘The Pegasus is showing five of the creatures on the landing pad,’ Al replied. ‘You should be able to see them soon.’

Aneka glanced back. There was nothing following immediately. She held out Bessie to Ella; Bridget was already holstered. ‘Take this, point it back the way we came. Anything appears, shoot it. Shouldn’t be any harder than the laser and it’s got more punch.’

Ella took the big gun gingerly. ‘Uh… why?’

Aneka unslung her rifle and pointed it towards the landing pads. ‘Unwelcome guests,’ she said. Compared to the shot she had pulled off to kill Ardus Quint, two hundred metres was almost nothing. The rifle fired off again and again, three quick shots, change target, three more. A few seconds later Aneka shouldered her rifle and looked back towards Ella and the research station.

‘We can’t let those things get off-world can we?’

Ella shook her head. ‘No way. We’re going to have to make sure we’re decontaminated when we get out of here. It can’t affect you, and apparently I’m immune, but those nanomachines could linger on our skin… There’s no telling how long they can survive without a host.’ She looked up. ‘More coming.’

‘Al, unlock the ship.’ Aloud she added, ‘Let’s get aboard. We can give them a warm goodbye on the way out.’

Ella hurried on, slowing a little as she got a good look at the gleaming hull of the Pegasus. ‘Wow, that’s what you flew in on? Hey, wait. You can fly that thing?’

‘Learned on the Brigantia. Didn’t think I’d need the new skill quite so quickly…’

The hatch opened and the stairs dropped down as they approached, and Ella ran on ahead of Aneka. Al started the air cycle as soon as Aneka was in. ‘I’m going to suck it down to vacuum,’ he said, ‘and pump the air out through the external vents. That should cut down on the chances of us having uninvited guests.’

‘Ella,’ Aneka said, ‘keep your helmet on. Al’s going to pump the air out.’

Being in vacuum without a suit never felt great, but really she needed one for the temperature rather than the pressure. Space was cold, far too cold for her body to operate normally. Short exposures she could handle, but nothing extended. This was easy; she just had to remember not to try to breathe, because that was really uncomfortable.

‘The cabin’s aft,’ Aneka said over the wireless connection they still had up. ‘That’s right as we come out of the airlock. When the door opens, you go that way, I’ll get us airborne.’ Ella nodded a reply. ‘Once we’re in orbit and I’ve contacted the frigate that’s up there, I’ll come back. The cabin’s not much, but there’s a shower if you want to use it.’

‘I’ve barely been out of this suit for days,’ Ella replied. ‘I think a shower would be a
really
good idea.’

Aneka grinned at her. She could feel the air pressure rising again. ‘Should be soon. Al, can you run internal scans, see if anything’s showing as foreign matter?’

‘I can,’ Al replied, ‘but decontamination would still be a wise idea. The sensor systems on this vessel are not designed to detect nanomachines and may miss something.’

‘I’ll put it in the message to Winter before we warp out.’

The inner door of the airlock slid upwards and Aneka stepped through, unloading weapons and taking off her gun belt to leave them in the small interconnecting corridor. Ella gave her a quick smile and then headed to the right through the cabin door. Aneka went left, dropping into the pilot’s seat and hitting the button that slid it forward.

‘Al, what’s the zombie situation?’

A window opened on one of the flight displays showing an external view. There were a dozen or so of the creatures milling around the airlock hatch and Aneka could see more walking down from the facility over the nose of the ship. Her hands shifted over the controls and the craft began to hum with power. Anti-gravity systems engaged and the internal gravity field started up. She pressed a stud on the left-hand joystick, pulled it back, and the thrusters lifted one hundred tonnes of spacecraft into the air as though it were a feather. At thirty metres off the ground she gave a short breaking burst and let the ship hover.

‘Aneka?’ Al asked.

‘I said I’d give them a warm goodbye.’ She pulled back on the right-hand joystick and watched the horizon change. The artificial gravity made it feel as though they were still level with the ground, but a second later they were pointing almost vertically up at the stars. ‘Bye, chucks,’ she said. Her thumb closed on a second button on the left stick and she slammed it forward. Two antimatter engines burst into life driving the ship upwards on twin jets of superheated, radioactive plasma.

Al flicked the image on the screen to show the view below them as it receded. The Plascrete was still glowing from the heat for several seconds after the jets had stopped hitting it. Of the chucks who had been there, there was absolutely no sign.

Part Two: The Way Home

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‘Am I allowed to give you orders, DeMarco,’ Aneka asked. She had just finished giving the captain of the Delta Lantilla the short version of what had happened on the planet below. He had been surprised, to say the least.

‘No,’ DeMarco replied, ‘but you can give me recommendations.’

‘Okay. Got any nukes on that thing?’

There was a slight pause. ‘Uh, no. Nuclear warheads are not standard issue on Federation warships, except in time of war. Which means never.’

‘Damn. Then I recommend that you hold position here and stop anyone going down there. I’ll recommend that a gunship come out here and nuke that place into a smoking hole.’

‘You’re going to need some pretty solid evidence to get them to do that.’

‘Oh, I think we’ve got it. We’ll be in orbit for a few hours. Miss Narrows has been through a lot, but we need to have a report sorted out to send ahead of us.’

‘Right. Fair winds, Pegasus. Delta Lantilla out.’

Aneka blinked at the console. ‘Fair winds?’

‘I have no idea,’ Al replied. ‘Ask Drake when we get back. He’s ex-Navy.’

Shrugging, Aneka checked that the computer was happy holding orbit and pushed her chair back. ‘Start gathering a summary of the data you got from their computers. We’ll compile the report when I’ve checked on Ella.’

‘That might take several hours,’ Al said, his voice sounding amused.

Aneka smirked, rising from the chair. ‘God, I hope so.’

Picking up her weapons as she passed through the ship, Aneka stepped into the cabin and laid them down on the floor beside the crumpled heap of fabric that was Ella’s suit. The helmet and boots were lying alongside; it looked like the redhead had been anxious to get out of them. The sound of falling water could still be heard from the small washroom off to the right. Aneka sat down on the edge of the bed and began pulling off her heavy boots and the leggings she wore under them.

The water stopped and a second or two later Ella emerged from the cubicle holding a towel, but not drying herself. She looked oddly hesitant and Aneka could not quite figure out why until it hit her. Her eyes widened. ‘Ella… What have you…? You’ve got boobs!’

A timid grin spread across Ella’s face and she posed a little, pushing her chest out. Ella was a pretty girl, very pretty. Slim, but with impressive hips and a narrow waist. Her face was more like cute than attractive, though the change in hairstyle had pushed her away from that, and if Aneka were to think about it she would not have complained. Ella smiled a lot, which was good because when she did her green eyes lit up and she could turn a winter day into summer. Without a smile she always looked sad. She had inherited most of her looks from her mother, but the one thing she had not inherited was Janna’s breasts, which were impressively large. Ella’s breasts were not small, but they were on the smaller side of average… Or they had been. Now…

‘Do you like them?’ Ella asked, her smile starting to fade when she did not get an immediate answer.

‘I just… Why?’

‘Well, I went in for the eyes and the computer, and I thought… I thought I’d get these done… I thought you’d like them…’ Her arms rose, covering her breasts with the towel she was holding. ‘You don’t like them.’

Aneka was glad they had been covered up because she had been having trouble taking her eyes off them. She looked up into Ella’s eyes. ‘I liked them how they were. I mean, they look gorgeous, but you didn’t need… Why?’

Ella sagged a little further. ‘I… didn’t want to lose you. You can do better than me. And don’t say you can’t because I
know
you can! I wanted to be so gorgeous that you’d never want to go with anyone else, and this is the only bit of me I could really improve. I’ve been getting more looks from others, so I think it’s worked… But if you don’t like them…’

Aneka suppressed a sigh. It was crazy, but she thought she had got the hang of it. This had driven it home: the great hypocrisy underpinning Jenlay culture. Jenlay were naturally attractive, and with cosmetic surgery being a trivial matter anyone could fix any little defect they felt they had. Everyone was pretty, so they looked deeper when seeking out a partner; that was the idea. Except that Ella had lost her looks, and her eyes, to a disease and no one had wanted her until that damage had been repaired. If everyone was pretty, no one had to settle for ugly partners, and attractiveness was always relative anyway. Ella felt insecure about her looks despite having a body most people from Aneka’s time would have killed for.

‘Come here,’ Aneka said, her tone firm. Ella crossed the floor to stand in front of her, and Aneka pulled the towel away. ‘Arms at your sides.’ Reluctantly, Ella obeyed. Aneka reached up and ran her fingers over the sides of Ella’s breasts. Ella sighed. Cupping the twin globes Aneka lifted them, feeling the weight, and then began circling the nipples with her thumbs. Ella moaned. ‘They’re gorgeous. I can’t tell they’ve been enhanced.’

‘M-modern cosmetic surgery.’

‘Uh-huh, but have you considered the consequences?’

‘C-consequences?’

‘Big boobs were the bane of my life. I was stuck in sports bras most of the time. Getting
anything
sexy to fit was just about impossible. They bounce. Your back hurts…’

‘This is the future… oh, don’t stop… the future, remember? There are nanofibre supports laced through them and around my ribs. Added support for the spine. I had my ankles and calves done too… Can wear higher heels without mmmm… discomfort.’

Aneka shook her head. She was not going to go into that one. ‘What about the sweating?’

‘Sweating?’

‘Yeah, cleavage is a sweat trap. All this flesh pressed together. You’ll be all clammy in there.’

‘That’s what… what showers are for. I think my nipples are m-more sensitive than they were.’ Aneka leaned forward and sucked hard on the left one and Ella said, ‘Nnngggg! Vashma yes, they are.’

‘You’re crazy; I haven’t been able to sleep on my stomach since I was fourteen! I’ve no idea why you’d want that. And now I’ll have to learn your breasts again, but they’re lovely because they’re attached to you.’

‘Thank you. Now shut up and fuck me.’

Giggling, Aneka pulled her down onto the bed. ‘Yes, ma’am!’

~~~

Aneka lay spooned against Ella’s back. Ella lay in Aneka’s arms, squirming a little and panting. Aneka was enjoying Ella’s new breasts immensely.

‘It’s… really hard to… think with you… doing that,’ Ella commented.

‘You need to think?’ Relenting a little anyway, Aneka eased off her teasing, though it made only a little difference; Ella’s body was wired, the slightest touch was electric. ‘If you didn’t know they were this sensitive, does that mean you didn’t have sex while I was away?’

‘I… No… I didn’t feel like it. Then I wanted to save these for you. And then… ah! Then I came here. Did you?’

‘No. It was on offer on First Day, but I was missing you a lot. I think the frigate’s captain would have accepted an offer. And I said I’d invite Shari Prentice, the pilot who taught me to fly, for some recreation time. She’s cute and I thought you’d like her.’

Ella giggled. ‘Thank you for thinking of me. And if she taught you to fly, I think I owe her as much as you do.’

‘Well I’m proud of you.’

‘You are?’

‘Hell yeah! You going without for all that time? Weren’t you worried about things healing over?’

‘Hey!’ It was hard to pout with Aneka playing her fingers over sensitive skin. ‘How long is the t-trip back?’

‘About six days once we get going.’

‘Good. Don’t think you’re getting out of bed.’

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‘Okay,’ Aneka said, ‘we’re sure we’ve got everything in there that Winter needs to know?’

Ella nodded while leaning over the pilot’s chair, one of her breasts pressing on Aneka’s right shoulder. Her lips were pursed and she had obviously managed to drag her mind out of the gutter to be particularly serious about the report they were filing. Except for the part where she had suggested recording the video message naked. Okay, so the camera angle precluded anything showing, but the nudity was still fairly obvious. That had been pure Ella.

‘I can’t think of anything else she needs. Send it.’

Aneka tapped a key on the console in front of her and the data package they were sending to New Earth began to unspool into space as a stream of tachyons. She had no real clue how the FTL communications system worked, but it did, and it would get the information back to Winter, and let their friends know that Ella was safe, several days before the Pegasus would get there. She also knew it was a one-way process, at least for a ship. The beam had to be targeted precisely. The receivers for interstellar transmission were huge to allow for hitting a target light years away. Not only could a spaceship not carry a big enough receiver, but targeting one was a practical impossibility. They would have to wait until they got home for a reply.