The Cold Steel Mind (10 page)

‘No fair!’ Ella gasped. ‘I can’t get to… Ah! You… Why did I teach you that?!’

Aneka pushed her girlfriend up against one of the consoles, eliciting a squeal, and leaned over her, fingers still pressing rhythmically. ‘Because you love it,’ she whispered. Then she was dropping to her knees, her free hand pushing Ella up so that only her toes touched the deck. It gave Aneka free rein to do whatever she wished. Along with the pumping fingers, she applied tongue to clitoris. The combination always worked well with Ella; she gave up trying to protest when all she could really do was pant, and Aneka was left with the slightly surreal experience of eating her girlfriend with stereophonic porn sounds playing from around Ella’s hips. Ella could apparently hear them too; her hands pressed Aneka’s face harder against her sex, then stiffened, and then Ella was coming, hard, just as the girl in the video did. Almost as loudly too.

‘Al? Is anyone else on the ship?’ Aneka asked silently as she set up a slow recovery rhythm. A few seconds of this and she could speed up, pushing Ella over again with even less difficulty. You could keep the girl coming until she passed out if you wanted.

‘Doctor Wallace and Cassandra are in the station,’ Al responded. Ella started whimpering as she realised Aneka was not going to stop. ‘Neither can hear Ella, I checked with Cassandra. Monkey and Delta are currently in their cabin on the Garnet Hyde, almost certainly engaging in the same sort of behaviour.’

‘You checked with Cassandra?’

‘She finds this kind of activity particularly fascinating.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Knowing that Cassandra was quite aware of what was going on did not interrupt what Aneka’s tongue and fingers were currently doing, and the resulting effect on Ella was starting to show in the steady stream of ‘Oh!’ sounds coming from the redhead.

‘I did wish to bring your attention to the emission the radio system picked up just after you pinned Ella to the console,’ Al said. ‘A burst of transmission activity approximately zero-point-seven seconds in length. I was unable to act fast enough to capture the full data packet.’

Aneka did her best not to freeze; better not to get Ella concerned unless she needed to be. ‘Xinti?’ Xinti speech was transmitted as a condensed, high-speed data burst which appeared as radio static to most people.

‘I don’t believe so, but I was unable to capture all of it. The data appears encrypted, and not by an encryption technique the Xinti used.’

‘Damn it, Al… I haven’t even got off yet.’

‘I’m not stopping you. Though I would point out that Ella is generally quite incapable after her third orgasm.’

‘She’s on her third?’

‘You didn’t give her a break after the second.’

Thinking she needed to pay attention more during sex, Aneka allowed Ella to come down off her high and then slid her fingers out and stepped back. Ella was lying bent over the console, her chest heaving, but she managed to look up and pout as Aneka began resealing her suit. ‘Al detected some weird radio noise, love. Sorry, but we need to go over to the station and check the sensor logs.’ Ella giggled, weakly, but she giggled. ‘What?’

‘You’ve never… done it in… zero G, right?’

Aneka shook her head slowly.
Damn redhead is going to kill me.

‘That’s highly unlikely,’ Al supplied. ‘Your chassis is well up to handling more or less anything Ella can throw at it.’

Aneka started for the flight deck’s door. ‘That’s good to know at least.’

~~~

The sensor logging system had recorded nothing specific about a radio burst, but the system kept twenty-four hours of buffered raw data as well as the processed and analysed stuff, so Aneka watched over Ella’s shoulder as the scientist pulled the data for the time period Al said the burst had occurred in and ran it through the spectrum analysis software. Ella was looking pretty focussed, even though her shipsuit was still open all the way down the front.

‘Give her a challenge and she’s like that,’ Al said.

‘True, but if she doesn’t find anything dangerous she’s still going to want retribution for earlier.’

‘Get in first. I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself, but the effect she is actually referring to is the variation in blood pressure the lack of gravity causes. I believe the term is “head rush.”’

‘Huh, some people get off from hanging upside down when they come.’

‘The same principle. I believe strangling someone during sex has a similar augmenting effect.’

Aneka avoided grimacing. ‘The only time I’ll choke someone is when I intend for them to die during it. Point taken, however, since I don’t have the same physiology, she’ll get more out of this than I will.’

‘There,’ Ella said, breaking the reverie. ‘Does that look like what Al spotted?’

Pulling forward with one hand, Aneka slipped the other down the front of Ella’s suit, and looked at the complex, 3D graph displayed on the screen. Frequency distribution on one axis, time and amplitude on the others, and it matched the image Al was displaying within visible limits. Aneka gave Ella’s right nipple a firm squeeze. ‘That’s it. Any idea what it is?’

‘Ah! Ohhh… that is really distracting.’ Ella did not, however, do anything to stop Aneka from continuing to grope her. ‘The computer’s running comparison algorithms on the pattern. That could take a while…’

‘Al, can you bang through this search faster?’ Aneka asked.

‘I could, but the ship’s systems won’t take more than a few minutes and Ella obviously wants to continue your earlier activities.’

‘Al thinks we should fuck while we wait,’ Aneka told Ella, giving her nipple another squeeze.

‘Al, Ah! Does does he?’

Aneka started to peel Ella’s suit open. ‘Yes. I, obviously, think it’s a safety risk.’

Twisting in space, Ella reached for the buckle of Aneka’s belt; she was not going to get caught out this time. ‘That doesn’t seem to be stopping you from following his suggestion.’

‘I must be getting impulsive tendencies from you.’

Unsealing Aneka’s suit, Ella said, ‘Good, I was hoping you would.’

~~~

‘The computer couldn’t identify it at all?’ Monkey asked.

‘Nothing in its database matched the pattern,’ Ella replied around a mouthful of food. ‘Probably just some random noise in the electronics around the flight deck.’

‘But Al’s looking it over in case he can make anything of it,’ Aneka added.

‘Al’s computational power is quite remarkable,’ Cassandra commented. ‘If there is something to find, I’m sure he will.’ She was not eating, but then neither was Aneka.

‘Xinti quantum computers,’ Wallace said. ‘Incredible pieces of technology. The only things more complex we know of are the units they ran their own minds on.’

‘Like the one I’m running on,’ Aneka replied.

‘Indeed. It’s probable that some piece of the ship’s communications equipment woke up briefly. A self-test perhaps.’

‘But the computer’s still asleep?’

‘There has been no sign of unusual activity in any of the systems we’re monitoring. When you mentioned the noise burst, I checked. All quiet.’

Aneka nodded. ‘It’s possible I’m being a little paranoid.’

‘Paranoia is quite normal under the circumstances,’ Cassandra interjected matter-of-factly.

‘Uh-huh,’ Ella agreed. ‘I think I’d be a little paranoid, under the circumstances.’

Aneka laughed. ‘I can’t imagine you being paranoid about anything.’ Which was something of a lie: Ella had her insecurities and Aneka knew it.

‘Just to be safe,’ Wallace said, ‘I’ll have the station’s computer run a full diagnostic sweep of the Agroa Gar’s systems. If there’s anything strange going on, I’m sure we’ll find it.’

‘I’ll do the same with the Hyde,’ Shannon added. ‘Better safe than sorry. If I let the ship break, Drake will have my hide.’ She grinned. ‘It’s probably the only thing I couldn’t get out of with sex.’

16.8.524 FSC.

Ella was watching Internet porn again. She said it was psychology research, getting inside the mind of Old Earth culture, but Aneka was pretty sure she was just hoping for a replay of the day before.

That said, she did seem to be analysing what she was seeing. ‘I see what you mean about disgusting and perverted, sort of. I mean, there’s a couple of things here I wouldn’t try. My theory is that since sex was more taboo, it lends itself to extremes.’

Aneka gave a slight shrug. ‘Maybe. Like I said, there were more euphemisms for it back then. People considered sex as something private. You lot think of it as an everyday topic.’

‘It is,’ Ella replied, ‘
and
it’s private. I think that’s how it should be.’

‘Not that I’m disagreeing, but you would say that, this is your society.’

‘That’s a valid point… Why would any woman willingly get fucked by a donkey?’

‘Money,’ Aneka responded almost immediately. ‘Though they do say one of the old Russian tsarinas used to keep a stable of stallions for that purpose. I think it was made up by her enemies, but you never know. People have weird tastes.’

Ella grimaced. ‘And what’s with this “bukkake” thing? I mean, I’m not averse to a facial, but…’

‘It’s Japanese,’ Aneka responded as though that explained everything. ‘If you want to know where it started, look it up on Wikipedia.’

‘Oo! I’d forgotten about that.’ The red-headed psychologist was almost gleeful as she switched to another window and typed.

Aneka giggled. ‘Some people thought that site was going to replace people’s memories. Why bother
knowing
anything when you could just look it up on Wikipedia?’

Ella’s eyes were scanning an article and she sounded a little distracted as she spoke. ‘We prize both personal knowledge and the ability to research information effectively. It’s all right to have to look things up, but it’s better if you take it in and remember it once you have. Especially when it’s one of your subjects of interest… You know, this is really interesting. I can see the humiliation aspect, especially in the original material from Japan. I can also see what this commentator says about it being a sort of “party sex” atmosphere. I’ll have to get Gillian to watch this stuff.’

‘I do hope that the input of Old Earth into Federation culture is not going to consist of old-style porn.’

‘Oh no,’ Ella replied, shaking her head for emphasis. ‘Gillian was talking about compiling some music lists to merchandise through the university’s Arts department. Monkey’s been playing practically nothing else since he heard it. Good thing Delta seems to like it too.’

‘Some of the lyrics are a bit… violent,’ Aneka commented.

‘I’ve heard some of them. The reason we don’t have those “action movies” you go on about is that they just aren’t popular. People don’t want to see other people gunned down by the hero. The music though, well even some of the violent stuff, just
sounds
good.’

Aneka chuckled. ‘Some of the European symphonic rock stuff should be a hit.’

‘Uh-huh…’ Ella pointed to the screen. ‘Aneka, do you think you could do that to me?’ Shaking her head and grinning, Aneka wandered over to find out what ‘that’ was. Yeah, Ella was looking for a replay before their bosses got back.

It was interrupted by Shannon, however. ‘Aneka, Ella, we have a problem. Can you get back to the Hyde, now? I’ve already summoned everyone else.’

‘On our way,’ Aneka replied.

Ella pouted, but started for the door. ‘You’re not getting out of that. This is just a rain check.’

Aneka sighed.

~~~

‘Could Al break Drake’s access codes to the ship?’ Shannon asked as soon as everyone was gathered in the mess.

‘I probably could,’ Al said, ‘but I have not.’

‘He says yes, but he hasn’t,’ Aneka relayed. Her eyes narrowed. ‘Why?’

‘According to the logs, Drake accessed the Agroa Gar data files last night,’ Shannon replied. ‘Except he’s not here and it was a local access made from the terminal in our cabin.’

‘I’d have thought you’d have noticed if someone was in there.’

‘I spent the night with Monkey and Delta.’ Not even a hint of embarrassment from Shannon, though Delta went a little pink. Monkey looked smug. ‘You have been having those odd sleep things…’

‘If Aneka had snuck out in the middle of the night I’d have noticed,’ Ella stated flatly. ‘Those bunks aren’t big; I sleep cuddled up to her back.’

‘If we are relatively sure that Aneka and Al are not responsible,’ Wallace put in, ‘we need to find out who is.’

‘Logically,’ Cassandra said, her voice quite calm, ‘I am the only other person capable of duplicating the codes required.’

‘Anyone could with the right equipment,’ Delta replied, ‘and I’m the newcomer to the team…’

‘Except I’d have noticed if you’d done it,’ Shannon said before Monkey could get in. ‘I think you were the middle of a train when the access was made. No, I think there’s something else going on.’ She looked at Aneka, apparently expecting her to think of something.

‘Uh… Let’s go look at the cabin then. Maybe there’s something there that’ll provide a clue… Um, I don’t suppose anyone’s got some fine powder, like talc?’

‘I believe I can get something fabricated,’ Wallace said. ‘Why?’

~~~

Sure enough, the fine, white powder Wallace had provided highlighted a lot of fingerprints on the room’s console. Al set about comparing them to the biomorphic data in the ship’s databases as soon as they were revealed.

‘Fascinating,’ Wallace said. ‘Of course, these days we use a fluorescence scanner to detect the proteins and generally just perform a DNA analysis. This was how the Peacekeepers worked in your time?’

‘They were called police,’ Aneka replied, ‘and this was done by forensics officers, and we did have DNA tests, but this was the first port of call. Fingerprints are unique, and easier to find than DNA.’

‘Unfortunately,’ Al said, ‘these fingerprints belong to Drake and Shannon. However, I believe I know why. The access was made through this terminal, but via a direct connection to one of the data ports. I only need your access codes to get that data.’

‘A direct access? Someone plugged in… Doesn’t that mean Cassandra…?’

‘Cassandra would have left traces in the access logs, even if she had used Drake’s codes. Her programming would not allow it to be otherwise. We have no direct data port. Unless someone here is a cyborg, we have an intruder.’