The Winter War (5 page)

‘They’d probably appreciate
that,’ Kaffrey agreed.

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka replied, ‘and it
should stop the locals seeing your people plugging in their
euphoria slugs. We’ll go stay in one of the guest houses. It’ll be
nice to sleep in a real bed, and they have pretty good tea.’

Marsden looked at her, eyes
widening a little. ‘You never said anything about them having tea
here. I haven’t had tea since my last field trip!’

Ella giggled and Aneka burst out
laughing. ‘I’m sure Abigail will make a pot before you leave,’
Aneka said.

17
^th
August.

The Sunday gathering in the square was
more subdued than usual, in a way. There were fewer people there
since many were still recovering from the effects of the disease,
but the ones who had come were partying a little harder. There was
more alcohol being consumed and the band was playing faster dance
tunes. Aneka had hoped that Abigail would sing for them, but no one
seemed inclined to sit still for their entertainment.

‘Near-death experiences and the
loss of people you care about can lead to celebrating the life you
have,’ Ella stated, rather morosely. She had been out of sorts all
day. Aneka had noticed the signs: the fidgeting and restlessness;
Ella was having trouble overcoming her desires today. And Aneka had
offered to take the edge off, but Ella had declined, saying there
was nothing wrong, she could handle it herself.

So Aneka danced with several of
the men, accepted drinks, and enjoyed herself, while Ella got
quietly drunk and watched the younger townspeople wandering off
quietly in couples. After a couple of hours, Aneka looked around
for Ella and discovered that she had gone.

‘If she is determined to deal
with this herself,’ Al said, ‘then it might be best to allow her to
do so.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ Aneka
replied. ‘I just hope she doesn’t do anything stupid.’

‘Like what?’

Aneka had no idea and there was
Mark offering to take her for a turn at dancing…

~~~

Abigail entered the guest house quietly,
heard nothing in the lounge, and so deciding to walk through the
small porch and in. She had seen Ella slinking away, looking
unhappy, and it was her job to make sure the guests were happy,
even if that normally applied to Citizens and Ella had made it
quite clear that she did not want to be treated as such.

She heard a sound from upstairs
and decided that a cup of tea was in order. She had heard Aneka
make a joke about Ella’s tolerance to alcohol. In truth, she was
not much better herself and she found a good, strong cup of tea
often made her feel much better when she had a buzz on like she had
right this minute. They were all friends now; she could have a nice
cup of tea with her friend and maybe Ella would tell her about the
stars.

The idea of being out there in
the blackness of the night sky fascinated Abigail, to be honest.
She would have given anything to go up there into space. Okay, so
it was frightening. She had been terrified of the shuttle at first.
The more she thought about it, the way it had glided through the
air on invisible strings, the ‘anti-gravity’ system, the more she
wanted to know more about it. She wanted to fly among the stars,
but she doubted she would ever get to do so.

She poured boiling water into
the teapot and turned, letting out a squeak of surprise as she
found Ella standing in the doorway of the little kitchen. The
redhead was naked. Just standing there with one hand on the
doorframe. Abigail wondered how long she had been standing there,
saying nothing.

‘You know,’ Ella said, ‘you’ve
got nice legs, you should show them off more.’

Abigail blushed. She was wearing
her Sunday party outfit; the weather was good enough, warm even
though it was after dark. Her best dungarees in dark-blue denim,
flat running shoes, and a little dyed tank top she had bought from
one of the travelling salesmen because she liked the swirling
pattern. It did show her legs, that was true. ‘Thank you. I, uh,
made some tea. It always helps me when I’ve had a bit too much to
drink.’

‘That’s not…’ Ella began, and
then seemed to change her mind. She smiled and said, ‘Would you
bring it upstairs? I thought you were Aneka so I came down, but I’m
not that warm…’ She turned, walking away with an obvious swing in
her hips.

‘Sure.’ Abigail set out cups and
some milk in a jug, and then followed Ella up the narrow stairs.
She found the redhead sitting up in bed, the sheets pulled up to
her waist. Those magnificent, pale breasts were on full display,
and Abigail had to stop herself staring. Her own chest had never
graduated beyond training bras; both Ella and Aneka had the kind of
substantial bosom that Abigail aspired to. And then there was the
slightly unnatural shape. She had never seen anything like
them.

Putting down the tray, Abigail
poured the tea and sat down on a straight-backed chair to drink.
The first sip made her feel less fuzzy. ‘What’s it like? In space,
I mean.’

Ella smiled and took a drink of
her tea. ‘It’s… contradictory. It’s cold and hot, and dark and too
bright to look at. It’s incredibly dangerous, and it’s
fantastically beautiful.’

‘I’d love to see it.’

‘Maybe you will, but I thought
the shuttle was scary.’

‘It was, but… I think it would
be worth it. What about the world you come from?’

‘New Earth? It’s a lot like this
world. It was chosen because it was like here. There’s no moon, and
it’s a bit warmer. The weather is a lot more stable than it is
here. And just about everyone lives in a city, but the cities are
aboveground, not under it.’

‘What about farming?’

‘There are farms, but our
technology is closer to the cities here so fewer people are needed
on them to make enough food. I live in a huge city called
Yorkbridge with Aneka. I work in a university with a bigger
population than Matlock. Much bigger in fact.’

‘It sounds… wonderful.’

Ella gave a little shrug;
Abigail’s eyes were immediately drawn to the bounce of her breasts.
‘It’s normal for me. I think Matlock is wonderful. It’s like… It’s
a simpler life. There are things I miss when I’m away, but I like
it here.’ Ella saw Abigail’s eyes move down.
I shouldn’t…
‘You seem fascinated with these.’

Abigail’s blush went all the way
down to her throat. ‘I’m kind of small. I wish I had bigger… I wish
I was bigger.’

‘I had mine made bigger. Some
surgical plastic foam was grown under the skin to give them a
better shape.’

‘That sounds… Aren’t they kind
of hard with plastic in them?’

Don’t do this, Ella. You know
you shouldn’t.
‘It’s a very light foam. Not hard at all. Try
one.’

‘What?’ Abigail’s eyes
widened.

‘Touch one. I don’t mind,
really.’

Curiosity got the better of the
girl, and she stood up, moving closer and reaching out tentatively.
Ella held herself rigid, willing herself not to shudder as
Abigail’s slim fingers made contact, squeezing gently. ‘That feels
just like normal,’ Abigail said, her voice tiny.

Ella swallowed and covered
Abigail’s hand with hers, pressing it harder against her breast.
‘You barely touched it.’ Even to her, her voice sounded husky.
‘See? It’s quite soft.’
Stop now, before this goes too
far.

‘Y-yes.’

Ella looked up into the girl’s
bright, blue eyes and knew she could not stop herself. Reaching
out, she snaked a hand around Abigail’s neck and pulled her
closer.

~~~

Aneka opened the inner door of the porch
and stopped, blinking, as Abigail came to a grinding halt in front
of her, eyes wide.

‘Abigail? Hi. Is Ella okay?’ A
flare of worry burned through Aneka’s mind as the dark-haired girl
gave a tiny whimper and then scurried past toward the door. Had
there been tears in her eyes? ‘Abigail?’ But the front door was
closing and Abigail was gone. Frowning, Aneka started up the
stairs.

‘Aneka… You’re back.’ Ella was
sitting up in bed. The bed was rather more rumpled than Aneka would
have expected, or wanted to see. And Ella looked… guilty.

‘I just saw Abigail leaving. She
looked upset.’ Ella’s fists tightened and the guilt shifted toward
worry. ‘Ella… You didn’t…?’

‘I… I tried… She was there
and…’

Aneka’s voice rose; she could
not help it. ‘She’s barely out of her teens! She’s not into women!
What the Hell were you thinking?!’

Ella shrunk back into the bed,
pulling the covers up. ‘I wasn’t… I tried to stop. I…’

‘You just had to wait. I’d have
helped. I
offered
this morning and you said no, and then you
seduce… Damn it! You knew it was wrong and you went and did it… You
cheated
on me! You cheated on me with someone who didn’t
even
want
it!’

Ella let out a wail and burst
into tears, but Aneka was in no mood for consoling her.

‘Fuck it! The poor girl will be
mortified. You… You sort yourself out.’ Turning on her heel, Aneka
left the room. A second later her boots could be heard tramping
down the stairs at a near run.

‘Aneka!’ Ella wailed, but the
only response she got was the slamming of the front door.

18
^th
August.

It had taken fifteen minutes to
persuade Abigail to allow Aneka into her room. Her father was
confused; his daughter had refused to tell him what was wrong and
he was not a terribly empathetic man at the best of times. He had
been willing to let Aneka try to talk to Abigail because he did not
really know how to get her to open up.

Then it had taken almost an hour
to persuade the little brunette that she was not to blame for what
had happened, that Aneka did not blame her at all, and that she had
done nothing wrong. All the while Aneka had wanted to quietly
strangle Ella. By the end of it she was just holding Abigail in her
arms and letting her cry. Eventually the sobbing subsided and
Abigail fell asleep; Aneka sat there on the edge of her bed and
held her, and the anger subsided.

Ella had been wrong, in every
way possible, but she had had something done to her that had
diminished her capacity to behave properly. It was an excuse,
nothing more, and she really hoped that Ella was not going to use
it to try to worm out of her responsibility. However, Ella was also
a victim and Aneka was being cruel to heap all the blame on her. If
anyone deserved that it was Yrimtan and she had already paid for
her cruelty.

There were noises out in the
hallway just after dawn. Aneka’s sensitive hearing picked up urgent
tones in the voices which someone else would not have heard. Reeve
Linden was talking to someone, and he was worried. Wondering
whether there had been another case of plague, Aneka laid Abigail
down on the bed and slipped out.

Linden was talking to two men,
both looking tired. He turned as she approached, his face creased
into a frown of worry. ‘Miss Jansen. I’m sorry, did we wake
you?’

‘I wasn’t asleep. Abigail is.
What’s wrong?’

The Reeve sighed. ‘A truck has
been found about a kilometre outside of town to the north. It looks
like there were a number of Citizens on it as well as some guards.
The men are dead, but there is evidence of women and they are
missing…’

‘Ogres?’

‘We believe so. Probably quite a
large group to have taken on an armed transport.’

Aneka rubbed the bridge of her
nose. She had been up too long, but if they were to find the women
there was no time to lose. ‘Can one of these men take me to the
truck? I’ll take it from there.’

‘It’s too dangerous,’ Linden
replied urgently. ‘We’ll get a party together and…’

‘I can move faster on my own,
and I can take on a group of ogres. Trust me. I need to stop at the
ship and get my weapons. I’ll meet one of you two on the north road
in fifteen minutes, all right?’ She used her firm voice, the one
she had employed for giving orders in the Army.

‘As you say,’ Linden
replied.

~~~

The transport was a wreck at the side of
the road, one wheel detached from the front axle entirely and the
back door of the rear cabin ripped off its hinges. Aneka frowned at
the damage. ‘Ogres did this?’

‘Who else?’ her companion
replied. His name was Lofts and he seemed to have very little in
the way of imagination.

‘Ogres commonly use
anti-materiel weapons?’

‘What’s one of those?’

Aneka looked around, spotting a
section of wall at the side of the road where stones had been
knocked out of place. ‘Never mind.’ She walked over to the wall and
looked over it. Her edge detection software picked out boot prints
in the grass and mud on the other side. ‘They went this way. I’m
going after them. You’d better get back into town. Go to the
shuttle and tell one of the Citizens that Miss Jansen wants a team
of Enforcers up here as soon as possible. If they argue, tell them
that Citizens are in danger, but they won’t.’

Lofts did not look particularly
confident, but he nodded. ‘You sure you don’t want me to come?’ He
hefted his shotgun. ‘I can use this, y’know?’

Aneka vaulted over the wall. ‘No
offence, but you’d slow me down and I’m better suited to this kind
of work.’ With that she set off at a run across the grass in the
direction the ogres had gone.

Lofts blinked at her speed
across the uneven ground carrying two pistols and a huge rifle.
‘Okay then,’ he said. ‘I guess I would at that.’

~~~

Ella sat on the couch in the living room
of the small cottage and stared at the cup of tea she had managed
to make an hour earlier. It was, she figured, cold by now and she
was not really sure whether cold tea was drinkable. It did not look
drinkable. It looked, in fact, disgusting, but she was still
contemplating drinking it because the alternative was getting up to
make another pot and then failing to drink that.