The Winter War (15 page)

‘Or! Or you might not want to
because I was such an idiot back on Earth. I’d never do anything
like that again. I’d include you in everything or not do it because
you didn’t want to. I was such a watemchu! So what do you
think?’

‘My universal translation
software is having a fit?’ Aneka replied. Ella made a noise like,
‘mmmnnnggg,’ which Aneka thought might be frustration. ‘Okay, so
you’re asking me if I want to… make our relationship official? Do
whatever it is you do to register us as a couple?’ Ella nodded
dumbly, her expression slightly pleading. ‘Okay?’

‘What?’

‘Sure, why not? Like you said, I
think, somewhere in that carefully rehearsed speech, we’ve been
living together for over three years. It would take care of any
legal problems if one of us dies or something. And I’m not going to
expect you to become monogamous because of it. If I wanted that I’d
have to chain you to the bed.’

‘You can do that if you want?’
Ella said in a small voice.

‘Come here and kiss me,
idiot.’

Ella dropped to her knees by the
bed, and was kissed.

30.4.527 FSC.

‘Congratulations,’ Drake said before
starting on his plate of food. There was a general round of the
same sentiment from the rest of the crew, who were digging into
food as well.

‘It is very practical,’ Gillian
commented. ‘You are living together and there are benefits if
something should happen. It’s also very romantic.’

Aneka laughed. ‘It’s not exactly
what marriage was supposed to be, but it is what a lot of people
considered it to mean. You lot live so long that sticking with one
person for life is too difficult, but most marriages ended in
divorce in my time, so it’s not exactly a change.’

‘It’s still symbolic to a lot of
Jenlay,’ Gillian said.

‘Especially in some parts,’
Delta added. Her home world, High Drahain, had something of a
conventional view of relationships compared to other parts of the
Federal core.

‘Well,’ Ella said, ‘we’ll get it
sorted out as soon as possible. We’ll have to have a party after
the ceremony…’

‘There’s a ceremony?’ Aneka
asked.

‘Not much of one. You just have
to agree to the formalisation in front of a couple of witnesses.
Idents are registered. That’s it.’

‘And then we have a party?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘With drink and Jenlay?’

‘Yup.’

‘Okay, but I get first dibs on
you.’

The Islands, New Earth, 5.5.527
FSC.

Aneka had decided that she could get
used to returning from trips and being locked up in seclusion while
the Administration figured out what to do with her and her friends.
They were back in a diplomatic facility they had used when
returning from Negral, and Aneka was busy lying on the grass
outside the room she had been assigned with Ella working on her
tan.

‘You are, of course, aware that
your skin will neither darken nor pale under ultraviolet light?’ Al
asked as she lay there. ‘I find it unlikely that Ella is going to
develop anything other than sunburn.’

‘I like the warmth,’ Aneka
replied. ‘I think the same is true of Ella since she put something
which looked like factor ten billion sun block on before she came
out.’

‘That is a valid point.’

‘Have you managed to tunnel
through their security to talk to Cassandra yet?’

‘What makes you think I would do
that? All right, yes, I have. I’ve been discussing your activities
on our trip to Earth, though I found it amusing to start with your
interesting ploy to have Ella begging for it on the trip back.’

‘The fascination you two have
with my sex life is a little disconcerting.’

‘Cassandra was originally
conceived, if you’ll pardon the pun, as a sex toy by a deluded
genius,’ Al replied matter-of-factly. ‘She is, obviously, inclined
to be interested in sexual activity. I was designed to observe you
and I enjoy making Cassandra happy. Providing her with the intimate
details of your intimacy is guaranteed to make her happy.’

‘I’m not sure whether to be
insulted or amused.’

‘Are we actually going to be
called in to talk to anyone, do you think?’ Ella asked.

‘No idea,’ Aneka replied. ‘I
think we’re waiting on someone.’

‘Quite possibly Winter,’ Al
informed her. ‘Someone detonated a bomb at a Federal office
building she was due to be attending.’

‘What?!’

‘That was late last month, but
there has been a significant increase in security around her since
then.’

‘Huh, she’s going to hate that.’
Aloud she said, ‘Apparently someone tried to blow up Winter.
Security’s been beefed up around her.’

‘She’s going to hate that, but…
We don’t get things like that happening on New Earth.’

‘Apparently you do. At least you
do now.’

‘Oh. Wait, was anyone hurt?’

‘I don’t know, but explosives
generally result in injuries at least.’

~~~

‘The bomb was discovered and the
building evacuated, but the explosives technician who tried to
defuse it was killed when it exploded.’ Winter was dressed in one
of her severe, grey business suits, the effect softened by the
removal of the jacket to reveal the sheer, white blouse beneath.
She looked tired.

‘You got no warning that
something like this might happen?’ Aneka asked.

‘Nothing. And no claims of
responsibility have emerged that we can take seriously.’ The spy
mistress picked up a tumbler of whiskey from the small table beside
her chair and took a fairly large pull on it. ‘Obviously that makes
me rather irritated, but that’s not why we’re here.’

Winter had arrived late in the
afternoon in an armoured vertol aircraft. The number of security
personnel around the facility had risen by a significant factor
almost immediately. Aneka suspected that the extra bodyguards were
what was making the woman tired, and likely increasing her
irritability. She was looking more relaxed here, in one of the
mansion’s drawing rooms surrounded by people who had spent much of
the last year out of Federal space, than she had since she
arrived.

‘What’s the plan?’ Drake
asked.

‘Tomorrow,’ Winter replied,
‘Elroy will be arriving with a couple of other politicians. We’ve
got a press conference arranged for the day after, so they’re going
to brief you on the current political situation so you aren’t
caught out. That said, we decided to limit the presence to Doctor
Gilroy…’

‘Gillian,’ Gillian interrupted.
‘We’ve known each other for a while and you’re sitting there with
your jacket off. I think we can dispense with the formalities.’

Winter bowed her head slightly
in acknowledgement. ‘Gillian and Aneka will be handling the press
along with Elroy.’

‘Not you?’ Aneka asked.

‘There are no actual security
implications, and if I was there all we’d get is questions about
the bombing.’

That made sense. ‘Why were you
supposed to be at that building?’

‘A meeting concerning the
shipping attacks. I was presenting the data my own people have
uncovered along with Aggy’s analysis. She’s good. We’d figured out
that pattern too, but she did it with less resources
and
obviously knows more about the technology being employed.’ Winter
gave Drake an evil sort of grin. ‘I should steal her off you and
get her working for me.’

‘She’d never agree,’ Ella said.
‘She’s a ship’s computer. A
science ship’s
computer. She’d
hate being stuck on the ground running intelligence analysis.’

‘I know. And since she’s just as
good a resource aboard the Garnet Hyde, I have no problem with
it.’

Aneka sighed and sank the
remainder of her own whiskey. ‘Another press conference. I just
adore those.’

‘You’re good at them,’ Winter
told her. ‘And anyway, it could be worse. You could be me.’

6.5.527 FSC.

‘Thus far,’ Senator Elroy said, leaning
forward to rest his elbows on the conference room table, ‘we have
established the high-speed tachyon communication link to Old Earth
and exchanged a few fairly diplomatic messages. The real work will
begin when we start talking details, but I’m quite pleased with the
progress so far.’

‘Who are you dealing with at the
other end?’ Aneka asked.

‘A Councillor Harper, primarily.
He requested that you send him a message when you got here.
Apparently someone named Abigail was keen to receive word of your
safe arrival.’

‘Can I?’

‘We’ve made special provision
for this team to communicate with Old Earth whenever required. I
don’t know how many of you will need or want to, but they know you
and it seemed best to ensure that they could communicate with the
Jenlay they’ve met if they wished.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Abigail is one of
the surface people we met. She’s a bright girl and they were hoping
she would help with the education programmes they’re trying to set
up.’

‘Something of a fragmented
society.’

‘It isn’t that different from
the Federation,’ Ella commented. ‘Core and Rim are almost two
different groups of Jenlay.’

Elroy gave a slight shrug. ‘We
like to think we’re one people, but you are correct. My take on the
overtures being made are that the Old Earth people are keen to
share their technology, and they believe we have some advances they
do not. However, they are cautious and have no desire to actually
become part of the Federation. They seem to be far more interested
in a tighter relationship with the Jenlay than with the larger
political structure.’

‘They have not had a
particularly pleasant history of relations with other species,’
Gillian said. ‘There was some sort of war with a culture called the
Pinnacle after the cities there were established. We don’t know
much about that species, but we know it was a hard fight to beat
them back. They became very insular after that.’

‘I recall mention of the
Pinnacle in your report. Are they a threat?’

‘They’ve heard nothing of them
since, and their home world was further from here than Old Earth
is. They certainly don’t represent a threat to the Federation, even
if they still exist.’

‘Good,’ Elroy said. ‘We have
enough problems at the moment without another one rearing its
head.’

7.5.527 FSC.

Aneka only really got one question
asked of her during the press conference, which made her entire day
more pleasant than she thought it was going to be.

‘Miss Jansen,’ some reporter
Aneka did not believe she had seen before said, ‘you managed to get
back to your home world. Was it not difficult to leave again?’

Aneka looked out at the crowd of
reporters. ‘I’m sorry, but there’s a basic error in your question.
I did not manage to get back to my home world. My home world was a
place called Earth which existed almost twelve centuries ago. The
world we just came from isn’t the one I left. It was never going to
be, but I needed to go there and see it to let that sink in. So
I’ve been, and seen, and my Earth is dead and gone. But I’ve got a
new home. The Jenlay have welcomed me to their home world. One in
particular has invited me into her home. We used to say that “home
is where the heart is” so my home is definitely here, on New Earth,
with my partner. I’ll be going home after the conference, and I’ll
be really happy when I finally get back there.’

Yorkbridge
Mid-town, New Earth, 8.5.527 FSC.

Janna let them have a day to recover
before turning up on the doorstep. It was not really necessary,
they were quite rested, but it did give them time to unpack before
Ella’s mother descended on them.

Unlike Brinna, who appeared to
have contributed almost nothing genetically to Ella aside from her
hair, Janna appeared to have cloned her daughter rather than giving
birth. Mother was a near-perfect copy of daughter, with enough
variation to make it obvious that a test tube had not been
involved. They both had the same pixy-like features, the same
bright smile. Janna tended to look a little more serious than her
daughter; her features were a little harder as the result of age
and possibly some elements of her lifestyle. Her hair was short and
midnight black, and her eyes were brown, and in the past Janna had
had much larger breasts than her daughter along with a slightly
fitter body. These days only the hair and eyes distinguished
them.

The brunette Narrows bounced
into the flat Aneka and Ella shared, hugging her daughter
enthusiastically before doing the same to her daughter’s lover.
There was rather more groping involved in the latter; Janna had
resigned herself to not sleeping with Aneka, but it did not mean
that a little indecent application of hands could not take place
when the situation allowed. And then the two Narrows started
talking more or less over the top of each other.

‘I’m so glad you’re safe,’ Janna
was saying. ‘I was afraid you wouldn’t get back in time.’

‘Mom, it’s great to see you,’
Ella said at the same time. ‘I mean it’s really great that you
don’t have to cross half the planet to come hear the news.’

‘What news?’

‘In time for what?’

‘Sharissa and I are going to
formalise things now I’ve moved in with her and…’

‘Aneka and I are going to
formalise our partnership and… Wait, what?! Oh wow!’

‘You are?! Oh that’s fantastic
news! We can make it a double.’

‘Do you have a Registry booked
yet?’

‘Slow down!’ Aneka said, maybe a
little louder and more sharply than she had intended. Two women
looked at her, eyes wide. ‘Janna, you and Sharissa are doing this
same formal partnership thing?’

Janna nodded. ‘We have a
Registry booked for the ceremony for the fourth of next month. We
can easily get it changed to do both ceremonies at the same time.
They don’t mind that kind of thing.’