Aneka Jansen 6: The Lowest Depths of Shame (3 page)

‘We are ready,’ Reality announced.

‘Sensors are fully active,’ Gillian confirmed, ‘and we’re getting feeds from Gwy. Go when you’re ready.’

There was no sensation of movement, but the displays of the outside world on the lab walls began to shift with increasing pace. Gillian and Ella were watching the monitors. Not that they were physicists, but Cassandra was there and doing the same. All of them had watched engine function data before.

‘Are you seeing that, Abraham?’ Cassandra asked after a minute.

‘Slight phase variance?’ Abraham’s voice replied. ‘We’re adjusting the force generators now.’

It was the form of address which Aneka noticed. Cassandra usually called her boss ‘Doctor.’

‘He told her not to just after the battle at New Earth,’ Al supplied. ‘He says he isn’t one unless the title is bestowed here, and he’s of the opinion that they should revise the practice.’

‘Okay.’ The term was applied to someone with tenure in some form of learned institution, and Abraham was right in thinking that the institution which had given him the title was gone. ‘I always thought of him as a professor anyway. He
looks
like a professor.’

‘That looks like you’ve got it,’ Gillian said, breaking Aneka’s chain of thought.

‘Indeed,’ Abraham replied. ‘Captain, would you take her up to fifty gravities? Be ready to cut the drive if we notice instability.’

‘Did you go through this?’ Aneka asked Gwy as the star field began to shift even faster.

‘Yes, though it was rather more clinical. I am seeing no unusual effects or distortions in Aggy’s drive field. She is holding course, straight and true, as I knew she would.’

‘She was nervous?’

‘She was concerned that her first outing might be fraught with minor issues and so disappoint everyone. Especially when
everyone
decided to attend.’

‘A ship with stage fright, that’s cute.’

‘Let’s go to full power,’ Abraham’s voice said.

‘I thought you’d never ask,’ Shannon responded, and this time they
could
feel the acceleration. Half of one-G was nothing to worry about, but it left some of those standing grabbing at furniture to avoid stumbling as it came on in a sudden burst.

There was a sound which could almost have been a giggle in Aneka’s head as Gwy gave chase. ‘Wonderful,’ the sleek, black ship following them said. ‘She’s performing beautifully.’

‘Are you sure you’re just not watching her arse?’ Aneka asked, grinning.

‘What?! No! I… It is a very shapely rear hull.’

Aneka wondered whether Gwy’s bows were reddening. ‘You’ve got a very shapely rear hull too, Gwy.’

‘Thank you, Aneka. I’m no judge of Jenlay aesthetics, but I believe you do too.’

‘Why are you grinning like an idiot?’ Ella asked as she spotted Aneka’s expression.

‘I’m having the most surreal conversation I think I’ve ever had.’

‘She’s right though,’ Aggy’s voice said over the speakers, ‘you do.’

Ella looked distinctly confused.

Shadataga, 24.4.530 FSC.

Shadataga was a warm planet, but it was phase-locked in orbit thanks to its rather close moon. The days were almost a standard month in length: fourteen and a half days of light were followed by the same length of darkness. It varied a little over time, but with the long ‘dawn’ and ‘dusk’ periods you could hardly tell.

Whatever, it was best to make use of the sunshine while there was some. It had been the tail end of dawn when Gwy had put down on the planet’s surface, and the sun would be dipping slowly below the horizon again in about five days, so Aneka was lying beside one of the pools in the accommodation area enjoying the warmth on her synthetically manufactured but essentially organic skin.

‘Aneka?’ Winter’s voice sounded a little hesitant and Aneka opened her eyes to look up at the ex-spy mistress. ‘Could I interrupt?’

‘Sure. I’m not even reading. I think Al’s chatting to Cassandra. Just enjoying the… well, the nothing. Not much we can do, so I’m enjoying being helpless.’

‘Quite. The lull in our activity gives me the opportunity to bring up… something I’ve been working on for you. An option you may wish to take up.’

‘Uh… okay, what?’

‘It’s best if you come and see. Is Ella available?’

‘She was in the university building discussing curricula with Gillian.’

‘I’ll request she join us. It’s in the basement of that building.’

Frowning, Aneka slipped off her lounger and followed Winter across the patio. What was the woman up to?

‘We shall have to wait and see,’ Al informed her, pragmatic as only an AI could be.

~~~

The underground section of the university building held, among other things, a hospital for over a hundred people and, right at the bottom, the primary computing core for the AIs, but it also had a nanofabrication facility of formidable capacity. That was quiet now since the needs of the few residents could easily be met by the far smaller units in the accommodation block. In one corner of it, however, was something which looked a bit like a stasis tank and in it was…

‘She looks like Aneka,’ Ella breathed.

‘Well,’ Winter explained, ‘I wasn’t going to alter the original design.’

‘The hair’s a little different,’ Aneka commented. ‘It’s more… natural.’

‘Well, except for that,’ Winter conceded.

‘What is this, Winter?’

‘You, if you want it to be.’

‘I… don’t get it.’

Winter walked over to the tank, looking up at the figure inside with its mop of silver-white hair. The face was partially obscured by a heavy face mask with tubes running up from it to the ceiling of the tube, but it was clearly Aneka, down to the tough, muscular body and the over-sized breasts.

‘When we designed you, Aneka, uh, that is, the body you now have, we were limited by the technology available and the need to ensure you remained undetected. We improved a few things with Yrimtan, but neither of you was designed for today’s environment. When I sent you off to Herosia I decided that I should do something about that. So I built this.’

She turned, her face still serious. ‘The basic structure is the same, but I’ve dispensed with the organic components. I very much doubt that you’ll be able to tell the difference, but the skin is a synthetic polymer. It’s an ablative armour, meant to soak surprise damage. The primary defence is an integral force screen with cloaking configuration. There are now two pulse weapons, mounted in the arms so they can be a little larger. Power comes from a total conversion cell which will last, essentially, until the stars burn out and since we don’t have the organics, there is no real need to eat, drink, or breathe.’

‘If it doesn’t need oxygen, why the mask?’ Aneka asked.

‘It’s being maintained on external power through that. The mask looks better than having cables down its throat. We’ll bring the cell online if you decide to use it. All the computers have been updated to the latest specs. Al will be more responsive. Your own brain has sufficiently increased capacity that the background tasks can be done in real time. You won’t need to sleep. However, I included a sleeping mode if you need it. You can actually sleep through long ship journeys if you wish.’

‘Oh yeah, now,’ Aneka replied, ‘when we’re going to be hopping across the galaxy in a day.’

Winter’s expression shifted into a smile. She had been worried Aneka would be displeased, but jokes seemed like a good sign.

‘What would you need to do to get me in there?’ Aneka asked.

‘This model has a data port in the back of the neck as well as the wireless facilities, so that’s covered. Your current body is another matter. We will need to get you onto a surgery table and access the port in your skull, under the skin. Then we take you offline, transfer everything across, and activate the new body.’

‘Are there risks?’ Ella asked.

‘I won’t lie and say there are none,’ Winter replied, ‘but they are minimal. The process is akin to that used when I create a new avatar, or the one the Xinti employed when occupying a body. It will take several hours and there will be a period of adjustment. For the first few days it will be possible to go back without loss of information. After that, the translation to the old hardware would undoubtedly result in some memory loss.
Very occasionally
a transfer to one of my avatars fails in some way. The Xinti had the same problem. Generally we can spot problems fairly quickly and the worst that happens is that we have to wake up your current body and tell you it didn’t work.’

‘I’d like to have a think about it,’ Aneka said.

‘Don’t wait too long. The fleet will reach Lonar on the fifth and we might need to do something after that.’

‘Tomorrow. I’ll tell you tomorrow.’

~~~

‘What do you think?’ Aneka asked. She was not alone with Ella since she wanted several opinions on the matter, so she had Cassandra and Gillian in the apartment to consult.

‘I’d have thought this was a matter for you and Ella to decide,’ Gillian replied, frowning. ‘I can sort of understand Cassandra being here since she’s attached to Al, but me?’

‘You’re intelligent, and more or less impartial,’ Aneka replied.

‘All right, as an impartial advisor… Why would you not? It’s not like you’re giving up your original body. The Xinti gave you no choice in that matter. This is effectively no different than… Ella upgrading her eyes. It’s obviously a bit more radical, but it’s not like you can’t revert if there’s a problem.’

‘I concur with my colleague,’ Cassandra said. ‘And now I’m going to switch off my impartial advisor mode and say, “Nothing can go wrong, can it?!”’

Aneka giggled. ‘Thanks, I needed that. Technically, no. I’ll need you on hand to help make sure the transfers have worked properly. You’ll do an analysis on Al to be sure he’s okay, and you’ll assist the AIs making sure I haven’t gone psychotic, or forgotten who Ella is.’

‘I think we’d notice that fairly quickly,’ Ella pointed out.

Cassandra nodded. ‘Ella knows you best. It would be advisable if she is a primary in your analysis.’

It was Ella’s turn to giggle. ‘Winter went over the design specs with me. I’ll be analysing a lot. You’ll want to analyse too. She’s going to be more flexible than before. Winter said it was payback for the boob job all those years ago. Aneka’s always complaining about air ducts.’

‘Oh, I’ll be better, stronger, and faster,’ Aneka said. ‘I’d be the bionic woman if I wasn’t already a robot. I just… It’s kind of weird to think of swapping one body for another. Just like that. Upgrade time. Like a new dress.’

‘Generally,’ Gillian said, smiling, ‘you don’t need surgery for a new dress.’

26.4.530 FSC.

Ella watched as Aneka climbed into a shiny metal cradle where padded clamps secured her arms, legs, and waist, and then two more pads moved in to fix her head in place. The redhead looked worried.

‘Hey, cheer up,’ Aneka said. ‘I don’t want to go under looking at you frowning.’

‘I’ll be sure to smile before they shut you down,’ Ella replied.

‘Which will be very shortly,’ Winter said. She was supervising the transfer personally, Evolution at her side, both in the sense that their real minds, off in the core processors below them, were doing the work, and that they had avatars present to carry out the physical tasks.

‘You know,’ Aneka said, ‘I’d have thought this would be making you smile, Ella. I’m naked and in bondage, and you could do all sorts of things to me while I’m out and I’d never know.’

Ella cracked, giggling, and her face broke into a smile. Aneka grinned back and gave Winter a nod. And then her eyes went blank.

~~~

‘You’ll wear a hole in the tiles,’ Gillian said.

Ella did not stop her pacing across the floor of the observation room. Beyond the Polyglass, Aneka’s body was now in a horizontal position, face down, and there was a fairly thick cable fixed to her skeleton through an incision in her neck. She had been like that for over an hour, and she would be there for several more as data from her brain and Al’s storage transferred to the body in the basement.

‘I’m nervous,’ Ella stated.

‘Really? I thought you simply needed the exercise.’

The redhead frowned at her in passing. ‘Well… there’s nothing else to do.’

‘Then
find
something else to do, dear. You’re making me jittery just looking at you. Maybe you
should
make her a new dress. New body, new outfit.’

The pacing stopped. Result!

‘I could do that,’ Ella said. ‘By the time she comes out I’ll have redesigned her entire wardrobe.’ Turning on her heel, she marched off toward the door.

Gillian watched her go and then looked back through the glass. ‘Sorry, dear, but at least she’s distracted for a while.’

~~~

Ella settled herself against Cassandra’s back and wrapped an arm around her waist. ‘Thank you for doing this,’ the redhead said. ‘I haven’t been alone in bed for ages.’

‘We both have reasons to be nervous tonight, Ella,’ Cassandra replied. ‘You realise that I don’t actually sleep, however?’

‘I don’t really think I’m going to be getting a lot of sleep tonight either.’

‘It’s silly, really. We’re both worried about extremely remote possibilities. I mean, the worst that could happen is that we have to turn the old body back on and explain that the operation failed. I have even less to worry about with Al. He’s basically just software, much as I am…’

‘That’s not the worst that could happen,’ Ella replied. ‘The
worst
that could happen is that they come out different. Besides, I don’t believe you’re just software. You’re an emergent. That has to be something to do with your hardware as well as your software. I’m willing to bet they couldn’t do this to you without replicating your computers.’

‘Perhaps, though I think my “mind” is now independent of the system it runs on. An interesting experiment to conduct at some point.’

‘Well, we’re sort of doing it now. Aneka’s getting put onto new hardware. Is she still going to be the same woman?’

‘A case can be made for me, but Aneka is different. The Xinti built those brain systems specifically to execute the mind emulations they created. They themselves transferred their minds between bodies and the only times there was a problem was when there was a fault in the hardware. You have nothing to worry about. Al
will
be different.’