Aneka Jansen 7: Hope (28 page)

‘Call Trin,’ Aneka said. ‘Tell her to get everyone she can over here.’

‘We won’t be able to keep this secret anymore,’ Al replied.

‘Thankfully that isn’t an issue. It’s time we got the rest of Haven involved in this.’

Pirate Cove, 13.1.560 FSC.

They had gathered quite a crowd by the time Kade walked into Nightside flanked by Aneka and Ella, and with Al’s avatar, Cassandra, Trin, and Lanyon behind them. It was partially because Ella, Al, and Cassandra were carrying rifles, Al’s his huge, fully automatic machine gun, but it was mainly because Kade was back. They had watched her being launched into space, a corpse, and here she was walking into the bar.

Kade marched up to the counter, gave Naseena an unreadable look and then climbed up so that everyone could see her. ‘Are we ready?’ she asked Aneka.

‘You’re patched through the entire station announcement system.’

‘Right. Everyone?’ The captain’s voice could be heard repeated in the walkways outside even as the chatter in the room continued. ‘Let’s have some quiet. You’ve got questions and I’ve got answers, but just shut up so I can give them.’ The chatter died away and she gave a nod. ‘Yesterday some of my people took Captain Sorien into custody. His ship has been disabled and him and his crew have been locked in. Now I’m back from the dead. The reason for both is a simple one with far-reaching consequences. Sorien was a Pinnacle spy.’

Everyone started shouting, which was expected, and Kade let it go on for a while. The decision to lay everything on Sorien had not been an entirely popular one, but even Trin had had to admit that the others were not exactly working of their own volition, and several of them had been quite convinced that their work prevented the Pinnacle from taking more drastic action against Haven. It was quite possible that it did.

‘Okay, quiet down. Okay, yes, this means that the Pinnacle know exactly where we are. They’ve known for longer than Sorien has been around. While my friends were trying to hunt down whoever set me up at station two-oh-six, they discovered some equipment built into our communications hub which has to have been in there since it was built. They’ve known about us since the very beginning.’

‘Then why haven’t they come here?’ someone shouted.

‘Because Haven gives all those slaves out there hope. Hopeless people, people with nothing to lose, they don’t work as hard, they consider doing drastic things. People with hope are better slaves than people without. But what we’ve been giving them is
false
hope and it has to stop.’

‘So… what, we quit this place? Just leave?’

‘Yes.’ The sound broke out again, but this time she shouted over it. ‘Yes, we leave Haven and we go to somewhere better. Somewhere they don’t know about. A new Haven on a planet where we can really become a society to give people
real
hope.’

‘How are we going to move
everyone
out of the system? It’ll take months!’

‘What do we do when we get there? We’ll have nothing!’

‘We’ll have,’ Kade yelled over the questions, ‘help. I met a few new friends recently. Friends who make the Pinnacle look like children. We can do this! We’ll have homes, farms, medical aid you can’t dream of. And we’ll be free of the Pinnacle for good!’

The shouting died away, even if the conversations continued. It looked as though Kade had got through to them. What most of them wanted was a quiet life away from the Pinnacle. This might mean pulling up stumps and moving everything they had, but right now they knew it was just a matter of time before their homes were blasted to rubble.

‘Now all we have to do,’ Ella’s voice said in Aneka’s mind, ‘is actually pull this off.’

Part Eight: New Haven

Amethyst Hyde, 15.1.560 FSC.

The briefing room table was hosting a schematic of the Haven system with five green dots which were not normally there in the mix. They had been in the system for six hours, and they were going to be there for another two days.

‘The loading is going smoothly,’ Winter said, ‘for a given value of “smoothly.” Obviously there are some wrinkles.’

‘Wrinkles?’ Kade asked.

‘People with some incredibly important family heirloom which has to be treated with care. People who want to ship the entire contents of a station with them. People who want to be sure that the family pet odd-little-creature-the-kids-love is going to be all right on the flight.’

‘Oh, wrinkles. Is three days going to be enough?’

‘To clear the smaller stations, yes. We’re hoping the process can be streamlined significantly for the larger ones. They tend to be closer together for one thing. Travel between them is less of an issue.’

‘What about when they get there?’

‘We’re transitioning everyone through Wormhole Junction. They will have medical checks and a vocational assistance interview.’

‘A what interview?’

‘We’ll assess their needs on arrival and ensure that they have them, and we’ll also check them out to be sure we’re not taking any
unknown
Pinnacle agents to the new site.’

‘Huh. It’s almost like you’ve done this before.’

Winter smiled. ‘I haven’t, but I did run the Federation’s intelligence agency for five hundred years. Besides, it’s the other AIs who are dealing with that. Speaker has an
army
of interviewers ready to handle this and his people are exceptionally good at picking up the smallest important detail. Everything will be filtered and cross-referenced through him so our chances of missing anything are within acceptable risk parameters.’

‘Just don’t ask what “acceptable” means to them,’ Drake suggested.

Kade frowned. ‘We can’t take risks with this.’

Drake shrugged and looked at Winter. ‘What’s Speaker’s estimate on this one?’

‘One in fourteen billion, but the uncertainty is higher due to sentients being involved rather than physics. He’s unwilling to officially state better than one in twelve billion.’

‘But…’ Kade was looking confused. ‘There are only forty thousand people in Haven.’

‘Statistics don’t work like that,’ Ella said. ‘Yes, at Speaker’s worst estimate there’s a one in three hundred thousand chance of missing a spy, but this could be that one chance. It’s just… pretty unlikely. That’s why Drake said not to ask. Us mortals tend to have a less perfect view of perfection than they do.’

‘Oh. Right. Well, I’ll try not to lose sleep over it. I mean, one in three hundred thousand. It’s almost a certainty.’

‘Nah,’ Aneka said. ‘One in a million, you’ve got problems. Anything else you’re home free. My main worry is that we don’t know what the Pinnacle are up to. We don’t
know
they’re in the dark over this.’

‘I’m hoping they are not,’ War said, her voice calm.

‘You decided on a strategy then?’

‘Yes. In concert with Speaker. We believe a demonstration of our capabilities is in order.’

‘I’ve been dropping probes into Pinnacle systems for the last couple of days,’ Winter added. ‘I’ve been able to determine that their military spending
is
rising at the moment. It seems that they are gearing up for another run at the galaxy, or at least Old Earth.’

‘Has anyone told Abby?’ Aneka asked.

‘We’re keeping her apprised of the situation. She has indicated willingness to assist if required. They are on-board with handling the Pinnacle slave women. Frankly, if anyone can provide them with a new home, it’s the Old Earth Humans. Speaker believes we may be able to bring the Pinnacle over as a whole, if they can be persuaded to moderate their behaviour. They would make a powerful ally in this part of the galaxy.’

‘
If
they can be persuaded to stop enslaving everyone else.’

‘That is one of the behaviours they would need to moderate, yes.’

‘Moderate… right. You need to get out in the field more, Mother Dearest. You’re starting to sound like an AI.’

‘I
am
an AI, Aneka,’ Winter replied, though she looked rather pleased at Aneka’s choice of endearment.

‘Yes, but you
used
to sound like a Jenlay.’

War leaned towards Aneka and stage-whispered, ‘I don’t think her avatars have been getting enough sex.’

Ella, watching quietly from one of the chairs, giggled. ‘Looks like it’s party time tonight then.’

Winter gave her sister AI a glower and then shrugged. ‘Well, I’m not going to say no.’

~~~

‘It kind of seems like these AIs run your entire Collective,’ Kade said as Aneka walked her to the airlock and the bridge to Pirate Cove.

‘They do. At first it was a bunch of individual governments and a system of diplomatic channels. But the AIs are so good at solving problems. Everyone began deferring to them whenever something came up. The Herosians are a little more independent, but even they tend to come to Shadataga when there’s a trade dispute or something. We have the best mediators in the galaxy. Now… The Jenlay in particular really just let the AIs dictate policy. There’s still a Jenlay government, and a Navy, but what they do is mostly down to what Shadataga thinks would be for the best.’

‘And no one minds?’

‘Some do. Most have worked out that their lives are not really that different from what they were, but they have better toys. Better medical care, better transport, better communications.’

‘Better weapons?’

‘We don’t let the really nasty stuff out to anyone. I suspect they’re going to use one of those as their demonstration to the Pinnacle.’

Kade raised her eyebrows. ‘Some sort of bomb? A death ray?’

Aneka laughed. ‘If they do what I think, it’s some sort of bomb. It’s just… Well, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.’

‘I’m not fond of surprises.’

Shrugging, Aneka opened the airlock. ‘Some are worth the wait.’

16.1.560 FSC.

Aneka opened her eyes and looked up at what would have been a dark room if she were organic. She had shut down next to Ella when the redhead had finally given in to near exhaustion. She checked the time and found that just over two hours had passed which meant that Al had woken her early, but it was Aggy’s voice which sounded in her head.

‘Aneka, I have detected a message going out from the Pirate Cove comms system. The destination designator is a Pinnacle enforcement base eight parsecs away.’

‘Lenora?’

‘The message was sent in the clear from a public terminal near Nightside. I have been able to grab an image from a station security sensor and have identified the sender based on the transmission time. It was one Rendan Marlow, one of the Baleful Eye’s crewmen.’ A grainy picture appeared in Aneka’s vision field showing a dark-haired man with a compact, tightly muscled body.

‘The Eye’s crew are supposed to be on the Eye.’

‘Apparently one of them has got off the vessel. I have no information on him and the security sensors in the asteroid are… patchy at best. My last sighting of him suggests that he is heading for the hangar bay.’

‘Crap. Whoever he is, he’s going after Kade.’ Aneka swung her legs out of bed and reached for her suit. ‘Get a message through to the Hope and tell them to be careful. This guy got off a sealed ship. He’s dangerous.’

‘Aneka?’ Ella sounded sleepy, but she had woken as Aneka moved.

‘We’ve got trouble.’

‘I’ll get up.’

‘No, you’re tired and I’m a machine.’

‘I’m getting up.’ She was already sliding out of bed and reaching for her clothes.

‘Okay, but put a move on. I think someone’s going to try to kill Ana.’

Hope of Sanctuary.

Anastasia became aware that she was aware. She had fallen asleep lying on the pillows in her lounge after not a few glasses of rum. It was the good stuff Gwy had taught Aggy to make and the hangover was remarkably light; there was a dull throb somewhere behind her eyes, but she felt like it was going to be bearable when she decided that looking was an option.

But something had woken her. What? A sound? A feeling? What could have pulled her from a deep sleep after that much good rum? Whatever it was, she decided it was not good and she moved, pushing herself sideways and rolling across the uneven surface before pulling herself to one knee and looking up.

There was someone standing maybe a foot away from where she had been. A man, not especially tall, but his body showed a lot of muscle definition through the tight, high-tech combat suit he was wearing. There was a dagger in his hand which glinted in the dim light.

‘I have got to get better security,’ she grumbled. ‘Marlow, right? You’re one of Sorien’s people.’

‘More correctly, he is one of ours.’ Marlow turned his dagger around and edged forward. ‘Don’t bother calling for help. I disabled internal communications before coming in here.’ He was being wary. She was unarmed and naked, but she had a reputation for unorthodox and very effective combat moves.

‘You’re Pinnacle. An assassin?’

‘A watchdog and, where necessary, a cleaner. I kept an eye on Sorien.’

‘Kept?’

‘He was no longer of use. He failed us.’

‘Better make sure you don’t fail then.’ She charged at him, lowering her shoulder as she bolted forward. He was caught off-guard and tried to dodge, but only succeeded in putting himself off balance so that when she hit him square on the chest, he went down with her landing on top of him and grabbing for his knife hand. She caught his wrist and twisted as he fought to ram the weapon into her side, but she was stronger. Her arm snapped out, straightening sharply, and there was an unhealthy crunching sound as his wrist gave way under the strain. He let out a shriek of pain and she used his momentary disorientation to shift her target, ramming her forearm into his throat and pressing down. He struggled, his fist beat into her side and then at her arm, but he was weakening as his larynx crushed under her weight. He gave one last slap at her arm and then stopped moving, but she held on, keeping the pressure on his throat right up until Trin pulled her off him.

‘He’s dead, Ana,’ the cat-girl said, looking down at the blood speckling the man’s lips.

‘I wanted to be sure.’ She kicked his boot. ‘Teach you to fuck with an Amazon, bastard.’