Aneka Jansen 3: Steel Heart (43 page)

Shannon winced. ‘Sorry.’

‘I’d rather be low on fuel than be scattered wreckage,’ Drake replied firmly. ‘You got us out of real trouble. Quit kicking yourself for it.’

Shannon gave him a smile. ‘I’m not promising anything, but I’ll try.’

‘Captain,’ Aggy interrupted, ‘I am detecting surface radar pulses.’ The room fell into silence as they waited, half-expecting to hear the announcement of another attack. ‘Pulse modulation and frequency indicate an imaging radar system, not a targeting one.’

‘If we need to run,’ Bashford said, ‘can we?’

‘Aggy,’ Drake said, obviously keeping his voice steady on purpose, ‘let’s get the main engine online and…’

‘I am receiving a radio broadcast,’ Aggy interrupted again. ‘Putting it on speaker.’

‘…unknown space vessel, please respond. I repeat, this is Prime City to unknown space vessel, please respond.’ The voice was male and none of them recognised it. Everyone looked at Drake; he was the captain after all.

‘Prime City,’ Drake said, ‘this is the Federal Science Vessel Garnet Hyde, Captain Mallory Drake speaking. We are an unarmed exploratory mission from the Lorenti Federation.’

There was a short pause and then the voice replied. ‘Captain Drake, this is Councillor Jerome Harper. I am informed that your vessel is damaged. We… are unaware of your Federation, but would like the opportunity to learn more. Perhaps we can be of assistance with your repairs?’

Drake looked around the room. ‘Councillor, could you hold for a second while I confer with my colleagues?’

‘Of course.’

‘I have muted communications, Captain,’ Aggy informed them.

‘Some help would be useful,’ Shannon stated.

‘They have pretty advanced technology in the cities,’ Aneka said. ‘We wouldn’t be revealing anything they don’t already know.’

‘But can we trust them?’ Drake asked. ‘You were down there.’

‘I think, yes,’ Ella replied. ‘If Yrimtan was still running things… Well, she’d have blown us out of orbit. The fact that they haven’t says a lot.’

‘Frankly,’ Gillian said, ‘the scientific value of re-examining their culture would be considerable. We did not have the opportunity to see the cities anyway, and now we may be able to.’ Bashford looked about to say something, but bit his lip instead.

‘All right,’ Drake said, heaving a sigh, ‘it looks like we’re staying for a while. Aggy, reopen the link.’

‘Done, Captain.’

‘Councillor, we would welcome your assistance. We’ll send a party down to you tomorrow so we can talk.’

‘We look forward to it, Captain. Harper out.’

Aneka closed her good eye and sagged back against her seat. They would be going back down to Earth, this time as envoys for the Federation. She was not sure how the citizens would react to her, considering that she looked like their recently vanished ex-dictator, and she was not entirely sure she wanted to find out. Somehow, though, she felt she had to go back to find out what state her twin had left the people of Earth in. She was supposed to be the observer; maybe her Xinti programming was rearing its head. Finally Yrimlos was going to be doing what she had been designed for. The world she was supposed to do that in was gone, and she had finally accepted that. There was a new world, with new Humans, for her to discover a few hundred kilometres below her, and she could accept that too.

‘Are you okay?’ Ella asked, her voice low and a little concerned.

Aneka opened her eye and gave Ella a small smile. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I am. I really think I am.’

###

This is the end of the
Steel Beneath the Skin
Trilogy.

Aneka Jansen will return in
The Winter War.

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 “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still loved 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://steelbeneaththeskin.wordpress.com

Other Books by this Author

Steel Beneath the Skin (ASIN: B00FJIQ85O)

The Cold Steel Mind (ASIN: B00D4MN40O)

The
Thaumatology
Series

Thaumatology 101 (ASIN: B006IYIESW)

Demon’s Moon (ASIN: B006JPN7A0)

Legacy (ASIN: B006OKR8PK)

Dragon’s Blood (ASIN: B0072S1DOU)

Disturbia (ASIN: B007GNICZO)

Hammer of Witches (ASIN: B007YG2I44)

Eagle’s Shadow (ASIN: B008E17TYW)

Ancient (ASIN: B00923F8AS)

Dragonfall (ASIN: B00AKV95XW)

The Other Side of Hell (ASIN: B00AS0NF54)

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll (ASIN: B00BNSQ4AS)

Anthologies in the
Thaumatology
Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study (ASIN: B006ZAJ7TY)

Tales from the Dubh Linn (ASIN: B0080XPD88)