The Winter War (34 page)

‘I don’t see pacifism as a
negative characteristic,’ Aneka said.

‘Neither do I until it means
they can’t defend themselves.’

‘Huh. You knew. When I first
arrived at Harriamon station, you knew who I was, and what I
was.’

‘Of course. I built that body
for Aktana. I did a full analysis of your mind before it was
implanted. I devised the implantation process, the “conditioning”
Aktana was working on when the reactor failed.’

‘Thanks for that. It didn’t
fail, it was sabotaged.’

‘I read the report. Magdigan was
an ambitious man, but none of us ever thought he would do anything
like that.’

‘So,’ Ella said in a musing
tone, ‘if you devised Aneka’s conditioning, you knew what she would
and wouldn’t do when she was found. That’s why you trusted her so
much.’

‘I didn’t know precisely,
because the imprint was not completed, but I knew what I had
planned, and what her mind was like before it began. I could make a
better than educated guess, so I trusted her, yes, even before the
Mental Sciences department analysed her. Yrimtan was a different
case. Magdigan changed the imprint used on her, enforced greater
belief in her purpose than I felt was prudent or necessary. I
believe that is why she came out the way she did, based on your
description of her. When the Xinti turned on the other races and
her belief in them broke, all she had left was her purpose.’

‘So you don’t think I’ll end up
as insane as her if I live that long?’ Aneka asked.

‘There’s no way of knowing.’
Winter gave her a smile. ‘You don’t have her psychological
baggage.’

‘I’ve got baggage all of my
own.’

‘Precisely.’

‘Okay… What do we do now?’

‘I’m still formulating a plan,’
Winter replied. ‘Things have become very interesting while you were
travelling here. Currently, the FSA is investigating me as a Xinti
agent, and your secret has been revealed.’

Aneka stared at her. Ella let
out a choking sound which was indecipherable if it was a word.
Finally Aneka managed, ‘Oh shit.’

~~~

‘At least Kat and Dillon didn’t seem
upset about it,’ Ella commented when they had finished watching the
news reports from New Earth.

‘I’m still going to apologise to
them for keeping it a secret,’ Aneka replied. ‘I’m glad your mother
knew about it before this came out.’ Having finished watching, she
was lying back on the huge bed which occupied one room in their
suite.

Ella got up from her seat and
wandered over to the bed. ‘Yes, so am I. And you didn’t have a
choice.’

‘I had a choice. It wasn’t a
very good one, but I could have defied Winter and told them.’

‘And if she’d found out she’d
have had to have you tried for treason.’

‘Huh.’ Aneka looked up at the
ceiling. ‘Winter? Can you hear me?’

There was a slight pause and
then, ‘You called my name?’ The voice came from speakers somewhere
in the room.

‘There wasn’t anything in those
reports about Janna.’

‘The news channels have not
connected the dots and gone looking for her. I have reports that
she is safe. She was worried about Sharissa, obviously, but now
that that situation is largely resolved I’d imagine she is
fine.’

‘Aside from worrying about
Ella.’

‘I can arrange for her to be
told you are both safe.’

Aneka looked at Ella. ‘I think
it would be better if she knows as little as possible for now. If
she knows something, someone might decide to try to get it from
her.’

Ella sagged a little. ‘Yeah…
You’re right. I don’t like her worrying, but you’re right.’

Aneka gave her a weak,
sympathetic smile. ‘What’s your analysis on the reaction to my
outing, Winter?’

‘The majority of people have
been rather sympathetic after I arranged for more details of your
past to be made public. Your behaviour since waking up has endeared
you to many. There is, however, a stronger negative reaction as
well. I have quietly arranged for your apartment’s security to be
enhanced. Katelyn and Dillon will be none the wiser unless they
need to know.’

‘You’re protecting their place
too?’ Ella asked.

‘I’m avoiding a repeat of the
Delaney incident, so yes. On the plus side, if you are ever forced
to defend yourself, Aneka, you can basically pull out all the
stops.’ There was a tiny pause and then, ‘Could I ask a
favour?’

‘Uh…’

‘Justine is a little… confused.
Could I suggest she come to see you?’

‘She’s confused?’ Ella asked,
obviously confused herself. ‘I mean, sure, but…’

‘I think it’s best if she
explains herself. I’ll leave you to it if you have no more
questions?’

‘You’re not listening anyway?’
Aneka asked.

‘I’m respecting your privacy. If
you ask for me, I’ll respond.’

The door chimed a few seconds
later and Ella opened the door to a dazed-looking Justine. Ella
ushered her in and they sat her down on the edge of the bed, mostly
because it would be less far to fall; she looked like her legs
might give out.

‘I went to the computer ops
room,’ she explained, her voice softer than usual, ‘to upload my
memories so that Winter would know everything that happened.’ She
turned her head slowly to look at Aneka. ‘She says she has a
solution to your armour issue. She… uh… She said she’d sort
something out soon. Anyway, I thought that was going to be it for
me. I mean, I’ve done my job and the safe house is… not a safe
house anymore. So I thought I’d be resynchronised. I’m not the only
Justine, you see? There’s one on New Earth now, but she’s a modern
copy of Winter.’

‘But you’re still you,’ Ella
said. ‘I mean, you’re not Winter. I mean…’

‘She said she wasn’t going to do
it,’ Justine said. ‘She said I should stay as me, that she valued
my independence too much.’

‘Isn’t that a good thing?’ Aneka
said as gently as she could manage.

‘Yes. I mean, I guess so. I
just… I’d resigned myself to not being me anymore. I suppose…’ She
swallowed. ‘I guess I’d psyched myself up to die and now I’m not
going to.’

Ella crouched down in front of
her and put a hand on her knee. ‘It’s a shock.’ Justine nodded
dumbly. ‘You knew this was going to happen before we even left
Odanari, right? That’s why you were so keen to indulge me. One more
fling before your end? You’ll be fine. Just give it some time to
sink in. You’re a real person, not a mental clone of someone else.
I’m really impressed with Winter for making that decision.’

‘Isn’t there a bar in this
place?’ Aneka said, grinning. ‘I say we go find it and you two can
get drunk. You’ll feel much better when you’re nursing a hangover
tomorrow.’

23.9.527 FSC.

‘Synchronised regurgitation,’ Winter
said.

‘Well, they have to take turns,
there’s only one toilet,’ Aneka replied.

‘True, I just didn’t think it
was possible.’

‘They’re both talented women.
Does coffee really make you hyperactive?’

‘Me? Well, technically I can’t
drink coffee. It would probably short something out. My bodies have
an artificially created genome and their biochemistry is different
from that of a normal Jenlay. A lot of biochemicals have an unusual
effect on them.’

Aneka giggled. ‘Alcohol doesn’t
seem to have a variant effect.’

‘Huh, no. She just drank far too
much, and Ella…’

‘Is Ella.’

‘Indeed. Caffeine does actually
interact with the neurochemistry of my avatars producing an effect…
It’s rather like feeding a child a kilo of sugar.’

The sounds of retching stopped
and a second later there was the sound of the shower running.
‘Looks like they’re over the puking in the loo phase.’

‘I doubt there was anything left
to puke. Such a descriptive word, I haven’t heard it in
centuries.’

‘I get that a lot. I suppose you
were actually around to hear all this idiomatic stuff I come out
with when it was current idiom.’

‘I’ve tried my best not to look
like I knew what you were talking about.’

‘I think you succeeded. Though
you did get my Catholic schoolgirl reference.’

The room’s speakers produced a
throaty laugh. ‘I enjoyed that character.’

‘Well, your secret is out, or
part of it anyway. I think you’re going to have to play that kind
of role a lot more often.’

‘True. Every cloud has a silver
lining, I suppose.’

‘You know, I do still prefer to
talk to you face to face…’

‘I was hoping you’d say that.
I’ve got a number of new bodies prepared and I’d like to see what
people think of them before I start assigning them duties.’

Aneka laughed. ‘Like a fashion
parade for genetics?’

‘Something like that, yes.’

‘I think Ella’s recovering from
her hangover. They’ve been in that shower for a while.’ Aneka
started to slip out of her clothes. ‘So bring whichever body you
want to try on first, and do it quickly or you’ll miss out on the
fun.’

‘I’ll be right down.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

Justine examined her daily update from
Winter, from herself, in a way. She noted that Aneka, Ella, and
another version of herself had made it to G3069, but her
instructions were to keep the information quiet for now.

She had little to report
herself. The ever-shifting world of twenty-hour news broadcasting
had had nothing new to run regarding either Winter or Aneka for a
couple of days, and had shifted its attention to other matters.
Headlining at the moment was the news that well-known star of
innumerable sex comedies, Ursula Handerford, was ending her
three-year partnership. There was a lot of speculation regarding
who she might hook up with next and she was feeding it by refusing
to give interviews. The news channels were full of it with only the
most serious ones still showing anything which really concerned
Justine.

Consolidated Media was still
rehashing old material, but their main push was a sympathetic view
of Aneka’s situation. Justine was rather pleased with that,
especially since she had fed them a lot of the material in a way
she was fairly sure would result in that outcome.

Winter’s situation was not so
easy. Justine had no instructions to reveal more about what Winter
actually was, and she was not sure that doing so would have the
same effect anyway. No, it seemed as though the best course of
action would be for Winter to go further underground in her
operations rather than coming clean.

Justine made the
recommendation.

G3069.

‘How many bodies is that?’ Ella
asked.

Winter was currently trying out
a tall, big-chested woman with long, scarlet hair, prancing around
the room to demonstrate her poise and flexibility.

‘This is number eight,’ Aneka
said. She was lying on a chaise longue, as were Ella and Justine,
in what Winter called the brothel. It had a boudoir sort of feel to
it, lots of hanging drapes in red and purple silk and the various
couches, and the lighting was dim and had a warm, reddish tint to
it.

‘I like this one,’ Justine said.
‘She looks… mischievous.’

‘You’ve liked all of them,’
Aneka pointed out. ‘Winter, you told Justine that you had some sort
of solution for my armour?’

‘Oh,’ Winter said. ‘Yes, I did,
and I have. I’ll send it down with Number Nine.’ Number Eight
tripped off toward the door.

‘How many do you think she’s
got?’ Ella asked. ‘I like Seven. Seven was…’

‘Tall, shapely and blonde,’
Aneka said. ‘And neither of you two got the reference. I’m fairly
sure she put that in just for me, though if she’s the seventh of
nine I’m going to be giggling.’

‘I was considering twelve,’
Winter said from the room speakers, ‘but I wasn’t sure whether
“there are twelve models” would hit any buttons.’

‘
Battlestar Galactica
? I
wasn’t a big fan, in either of the incarnations. Alan loved the
updated version. I thought the pilot was good. The space battles
anyway.’

‘I’m glad I stuck with just nine
for now then,’ said Number Nine as she walked in. This one was
younger-looking than most of the others, a fresh-faced,
slim-figured teenager with short, platinum blonde hair and bright,
sparkling, blue eyes.

Aneka giggled. ‘Couldn’t resist,
huh?’

‘No. Even if neither Justine nor
Ella get the joke.’ She skipped over to Aneka and handed her a
plastic bundle. ‘You’ll need some training, but Al can download a
program from my network which can provide you with a basic level of
skill in the suit’s operation.’

Aneka unrolled the garment and
found herself looking at a rebuild of the suit Ella had given her.
She could tell it was a rebuild because there was no large hole in
the back. ‘Uh, Winter, I’ve never needed any special skill to use
this before…’

‘Put it on. I made a few
modifications. I hope you don’t mind me using your design,
Ella?’

‘No,’ Ella replied. ‘I’m glad
you did. I was a little annoyed when she went and ruined the last
one.’

‘It wasn’t exactly my fault,’
Aneka replied. She had stripped already and was pulling the suit up
her legs. ‘I didn’t
mean
to get shot in the back.’

‘I don’t think anyone ever
does,’ Winter replied. ‘You’re lucky that a direct hit from an
antimatter blaster isn’t enough to kill you. Your training in
vacuum suits should be sufficient to get you through the
basics.’

Aneka closed the seal over her
left shoulder and neck. The collar seemed a little heavier than
before, as though there was a band of metal woven into it. With the
seal closed, an interface window appeared in-vision and she
frowned. ‘It’s got some sort of computer built into it. It’s
powered.’

‘Indeed,’ Winter said. ‘Al
should be able to interface to it, but it won’t really show its
colours until you activate it.’

‘Al,’ Aneka said silently, ‘you
have it interfaced?’