The Winter War (16 page)

‘Well it would save some time
and effort, I guess,’ Aneka conceded.

‘But then there’s the party,’
Ella said, frowning. ‘If it’s your friends and ours…’

‘Oh, don’t worry about that,
dear,’ Janna said, grinning. ‘Sharissa’s place is bigger than this
and we’d already planned for a party there after the ceremony. We
can just add some extra people, perhaps make it a little
longer…’

Aneka let out a groan. ‘This is
going to be Christmas all over again, isn’t it?’

‘Oh no,’ Janna said, waving the
argument away. ‘It’ll be nothing like that. I expect there to be
far more sex for one thing.’ Grabbing the bag she had dropped on
the way in, she pulled a bottle of wine from it and started for the
kitchen. ‘Come on, we can get drunk and discuss plans.’

‘I can’t get drunk, Janna,’
Aneka pointed out.

‘No, but Ella gets twice as
drunk as a normal person, so she makes up for you.’

‘Mom!’ Ella whined, even if it
was true.

University of New Earth, 12.5.527
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‘The fourteenth,’ Gillian said. ‘It’s
already arranged so there’s no getting out of it.’

‘I hate these political
parties,’ Aneka said making a sour face.

‘At least we’re not trying to
milk the guests for money this time. This is just a thank you to
those who contributed to the expedition.’

Ella frowned. ‘Does that mean
Teldarian is going to be there?’

‘He has, apparently, accepted
the invitation,’ Gillian replied.

‘Huh. I bet he did.’

‘Ella, you’re formalising your
relationship next month. If anyone needs to be jealous, it’s
him.’

‘You can thank him for the
coffee,’ Aneka suggested.

‘Huh. And how would you suggest
I thank him?’

‘You say, “Thank you for the
coffee, Mister Teldarian.”’

‘Oh, right.’

Aneka smirked. ‘And then you
add, “Should I get on all fours here or would you like to find
somewhere private?”’

‘Aneka!’

‘What? You said it yourself.
He’s rich, handsome, charming…’

‘And after you.’

‘Stephen Teldarian may or may
not be after me, but he’s not going to get me, in any permanent
sense, and I’m willing to bet he’d happily go with you… or
Gillian.’

Gillian laughed. ‘I think I’m a
little old for him.’

‘You think?’

‘He tends to prefer younger
women. Much younger, though I think you’re right about Ella. She’s
just about young enough.’

Ella pouted.

Downtown Yorkbridge, 13.5.527 FSC.

‘That one’s gorgeous,’ Ella said. ‘You
should really try it on.’

‘Nope,’ Aneka replied from where
she was lounging on a chair in the changing rooms. ‘I am wearing my
swarm dress. I don’t need anything else.’

‘But…’

‘No. Swarm dress. We’re here to
find something for you to wear.’

‘But I like watching you try on
dresses,’ Ella replied, pouting.

‘I know. I’m your own personal
life-size dress-up doll. But not this time.’

Picking up the next dress she
was going to try on, Ella walked into the cubicle she was using and
closed the curtain. ‘I’m not sure I like the new you.’

‘New me?’

‘Yeah, ever since you fought
Yrimtan you’ve been saying no to me more often.’

‘You mean at all.’

‘That’s more often. But you
have.’

‘Not where it counts. Have I
refused to have sex with you? Ever?’

‘Well, no.’

‘There you go then.’

Ella emerged from behind the
curtain wearing a dress made up of various irregularly shaped
panels held in place by lengths of bio-plastic thread so fine as to
be almost invisible. ‘I disagree though. You said no when I asked
you not to go after Yrimtan. That was important.’ She examined
herself in the mirror. ‘I think that’s what started this rebellious
tendency.’

‘That one’s great,’ Aneka said,
avoiding the implied question. ‘You should take that even if you
aren’t going to wear it for this party.’

‘I’ll take one in white for the
party and another in red. And you’re not getting out of it that
easily.’ She marched back into the cubicle to change.

‘I had to take her out, and you
know I did. I think she
wanted
it to happen, even if she
tried really hard to kill me instead. And after I’d said no once it
was easier to do it again, yes.’

Ella re-emerged, carrying her
soon-to-be-purchased dress. She smiled. ‘I guess you did have to,
and I guess I can live with a few refusals as long as none of them
involves sex.’

‘Ella, love, if I ever refuse to
have sex with you I want you to shoot me, because I’ll obviously be
brain-dead and just walking around out of habit.’

Ella giggled. ‘C’mon, let’s pick
up the other copy of this and get out of here. We can go home and
you can practise saying yes to me.’

University of New Earth, 14.5.527
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Actually, Aneka was not having a bad
time. The party felt like it had a real party atmosphere. The
attendees were all there because they had made some contribution to
the Old Earth expedition, and this was their reward. There were
pictures and displays around the Grand Hall showing information
about the original home of Humanity, and everyone was at least
making a show of looking at a few of them, but mostly they were
there for the drinking, dancing, flirting, and food.

Someone had had the bright idea
of getting the Extreme Measures people to put up a climbing wall at
one end of the hall, so there was the distinctly crazy sight of
mildly drunk men and women in evening wear being hauled up a fake
cliff. Near the bottom of that, Aneka found Eddie Leverson and
Annie Teach keeping an eye on their employees who were manning the
wall. Teach was wearing a short, black dress in a sparkling, sheer
fabric, her lithe body making the garment really work well for her.
Leverson was in black jeans and a T-shirt printed with a tuxedo
pattern. Aneka was a little surprised that Teach had persuaded him
to wear long trousers.

‘Annie,’ Aneka said, grinning at
the couple, ‘you’re looking gorgeous. Eddie, you’re looking like
someone out of a stoner movie.’

‘She does, doesn’t she?’ Eddie
drawled. ‘Not that you’re looking bad yourself. You said you had a
dress based on the light swarm and I gotta say that Annie’s the
only other person I’ve ever seen looking as good in air and tiny
robots.’ Aneka was indeed wearing, if the term could be applied, a
cloud of tiny, glowing beads, which floated around her body in the
approximate shape of a mini-dress. There was enough density there
at the moment that her skin was barely visible as long as she moved
at a walk.

‘Thanks, Eddie, though Ella was
wearing one last time we were here and I thought she looked pretty
good.’

‘Ella’s the redhead in the tiny
cloth patches?’ Aneka nodded and Leverson gave an appreciative nod
in return. ‘Fit-looking lady for an academic.’

‘Don’t mind Eddie,’ Teach said.
‘He bust a leg a couple of weeks ago and he’s not been getting any
while the bone healed. He’s a little over-eager.’

‘I meant,’ Leverson said, ‘that
she had good muscle definition.’

‘Sure, Eddie,’ Teach replied,
grinning. ‘I heard you got some use out of that microlight?’

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka told them. ‘We
got use out of just about everything you guys gave us, but that
little plane was a life saver. Literally. You guys can have my
endorsement any time you like.’

Teach beamed. ‘I’m going to hold
you to that. Maybe get you to do a small photo shoot with a friend
of mine and some of our gear?’

Aneka nodded slowly. ‘I can
probably do that, sure. As long as you’re not planning on pictures
of me naked aside from a harness halfway up a cliff.’

Teach managed to keep an almost
straight face. ‘Gopi, there goes that idea.’

~~~

Teldarian’s gaze was fixed on a display
showing a projection of Old Earth with the major areas of
occupation marked. As Aneka approached he seemed to be paying
particular attention to the central section where Europe, and
England, was one of the denser regions of population.

‘The Prime City is there,’ Aneka
said. ‘What could be described as the world’s capital. It’s
certainly the place their Council occupies.’

‘Your place of birth, if my
memory serves?’ Teldarian replied. He turned and gave her a smile,
all white teeth and charm. Stephen Teldarian had charm down pat. He
was tall, handsome, and somewhat swarthy with his tanned skin and
slight stubble. His hair was black and fell down his neck in soft
waves. A memory flashed to mind unbidden of her fingers twining
into that hair as she pressed his mouth…

She smiled back. ‘They built it
under Aldershot. It was a military town. There were bunkers they
could use to start from.’ It was partially a lie. Yrimtan had built
under Aldershot for the same reason Aneka would have; it was their
home town.

‘Nice place?’

‘The old town or the new
city?’

‘Either. Both.’

‘Aldershot was… I’m biased, but
the town wasn’t what I’d call picturesque. The new city is a little
sterile. Very modern, but very… artificial.’

‘Cities tend to be.’

‘I don’t think so. Some of them
are quite organic. Living entities. Mid-town is a little like that.
I wasn’t sure about the place when I first moved in, but it’s
really growing on me.’

‘Really?’

‘Uh-huh. Ella and I are
formalising our partnership.’

She saw it in his eyes, the
flare of displeasure, almost anger. Then there was the
self-recrimination. ‘Congratulations.’

‘Thank you. How’s your
sister?’

His eyes tightened, wrinkles
showed around his nose as his lip moved up. She kept the frown off
her face, but it was almost as though she had kicked him while he
was down. ‘She’s well. She was asking whether I would see you here.
I think she likes you.’

‘I liked her. She’s a free
spirit. Well, for someone who never leaves a private island on an
isolated planet.’

‘Yes, yes she is. If you’ll
excuse me, there’s someone I need to talk to.’

Aneka nodded. ‘Of course. Enjoy
the party.’

‘Oh, I intend to.’

He walked away and she noticed
the stiffness in his stride.

~~~

‘Teldarian didn’t look happy,’ Ella
said.

‘I told him we were getting
hitched,’ Aneka replied. She sipped her wine, which tasted a lot of
blackcurrant. She really needed to get an import business started
shipping real wine from Old Earth.

‘That explains it. He left about
twenty minutes ago.’

‘Huh. He’ll get over it. He
actually seemed more upset when I asked about his sister. What’ve
you been up to?’

‘Schmoozing. That’s the right
word, isn’t it?’

Aneka giggled. ‘Yeah, that’s
it.’

‘I’ve danced with three men and
two women. Two of the men and both women couldn’t keep their hands
off my butt.’

‘Who’s the third man? I think I
should check him out. He’s either gay or he’s got amazing
self-control.’

Ella giggled this time. ‘I’ve
been chatting with people. Talking about the displays. Actually, I
talked to Teldarian right before he left.’

‘Oh? Maybe that was what made
him leave then. He never struck me as the jealous type.’

‘He didn’t say anything about
the registration. Just talked about the Matlock display.’

Yeah, he had had his nose rubbed
in it and had decided discretion was the better part of valour.
Aneka was moderately sure he would get over it. There would
probably be a nubile young woman involved in his therapy.

Ella giggled again. ‘I was
thinking about trying that climbing wall.’

‘In that dress?’

‘Is that a problem?’

Aneka laughed this time. ‘No,
but give me thirty minutes to sell tickets would you?’

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Aneka stood in the shower, more or less
holding Ella up while the redhead groaned and let the water soak
into her hair.

‘You know,’ Ella said, her voice
almost muffled by the downpour, ‘you could be kind and stop me
drinking at these things. Or at all.’

‘I like you tipsy. You’re a cute
drunk. I wouldn’t let you do anything embarrassing.’

‘Like climbing that wall.’

‘Exactly like climbing that wall
in a dress that barely covered your butt. Besides, you get totally
wild in bed when you’ve had too many.’

Ella giggled, and then winced.
‘Are the painkillers going to start working soon?’

‘Ten, maybe twelve,
minutes.’

Another groan. ‘Can we hold off
on the planning until tomorrow? I don’t think my mind’s in it.’

‘There’s not that much to plan,
so yes.’

‘Have I mentioned that I love
you recently?’

‘More or less every ten minutes
since we got home, yes.’

‘I’ve slept since then.’ She
turned around in Aneka’s arms and pushed up onto her toes. Their
lips met, softly at first and then more hungrily. ‘I love you,’
Ella breathed when they finally broke the kiss.

‘I love you too, but don’t you
have a headache?’

Ella shook her head slowly.
‘Either the painkillers are working really fast, or you’re the best
analgesic there is.’

Aneka pulled her in closer,
feeling the pressure of the hard nubs of her nipples. ‘Worst
romantic line ever. Shut up and kiss me.’

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Sharissa Torrence was a tall,
attractive blonde, her hair tending to work its way toward a
flapper-like ringletted appearance. She had gorgeous blue eyes, a
fit body with breasts significantly smaller than her partner’s, and
a general personality closer to Aneka’s than most Jenlay women she
had met. Aneka had decided she liked the woman the first time they
met while visiting Janna, but the more time they got to spend
together, the more she thought Sharissa was a perfect match for
Ella’s mother.