Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour (23 page)

‘But the “G” means it has a habitable planet, right?’

‘And that could mean someone living there for me to talk to,’ Abby said, nodding.

Aneka was looking at the data Al was displaying for her. ‘Intermediate Population One star, fairly young. It’s been around three billion years or so. That’s not a lot of time for intelligent life to develop, let alone something that could help us.’

Abby shrugged. ‘Maybe they’re fast learners.’

FScV Garnet Hyde, 18.7.529 FSC.

‘Garnet Hyde to New Earth Control, ready for departure.’ Drake released the transmit key and waited.

‘Garnet Hyde, this is Control, clearance granted, you are free to proceed.’

Drake gave a nod to Shannon, and the blonde pilot’s hands slid over the flight controls with the practised ease of someone who had done this many times before. Of course, none of them had plotted to leave the system without permission before, but at least the flying part was easy enough.

‘So far so good,’ Aneka said from the back of the cockpit. ‘First stop is the Hand, to pick up Abby.’

‘I’m aware,’ Shannon pointed out.

‘Sorry. I’m nervous.’

‘
You
are nervous? This is the kind of thing you do for a living. Well, did for a living.’

‘I dislike plans with too many moving parts. Too much to go wrong.’

Despite Aneka’s misgivings, they were sliding the Hyde into the Hand of God’s hangar bay inside of fifteen minutes, and Aneka went down to meet Abby and Tasker at the airlock.

‘We’re moving out already,’ Tasker said as soon as the inner door was shut behind her. ‘We’ll be in the outer system and ready to run our “test” in about forty minutes.’

‘Gotta love reactionless engines,’ Aneka commented. ‘Any problems?’

‘No. And the techs on the Argus would actually like to run a full test on the sensor and electronic warfare systems. Do you think you can hang around long enough to give us some results?’

‘Run one test, we’ll let you know how it goes, then run a second for confirmation and we’ll bug out during that one.’

Tasker laughed. ‘That actually sounds technically sound.’

Aneka grinned at her and looked at Abby. ‘You ready for this?’

‘The staff on the Argus have been briefed. I’ve sent a message to Prime City explaining what I’m doing. Well, I left out some details and glossed over the fact that we don’t actually know what we’re doing, but it’s the thought that counts. What are the sleeping arrangements?’

‘We just have enough cabins, so no one
needs
to go into cold sleep, but Drake’s a little concerned about supplies, so the younger members of the crew have volunteered to snooze through most of the trip. You’re not used to it, so…’

‘I can do it, if it would make things easier. It’s safe, isn’t it?’

‘They tell me there are very rarely any problems. I’ve never seen an accident. It’s just not very pleasant waking up.’

Abby grinned. ‘To be honest, getting here was kind of boring. Sleeping through the trip would not make my heart ache.’

‘We’ll discuss it when we’re in flight,’ Aneka said.

‘I’d better get back up to the bridge,’ Tasker said. ‘Abby, you be careful, and good luck to all of you.’

‘Thanks for the concern,’ Abby said, grinning.

‘Yeah, well if you don’t come back it’ll be me that gets it in the neck for letting you go.’ The Captain grinned back at her. ‘So come back. With good news.’

‘We will,’ Aneka replied, hoping she would. ‘And if we’re not back in time… Well, good luck to you guys as well. Tell the crews I’m trying to keep them out of harm’s way.’

‘We did,’ Tasker said. ‘They’re all fairly convinced you’re going to defeat the Herosians all by yourself.’

Aneka sighed. ‘No pressure then, just like always.’

~~~

‘The coverage was very good,’ Wallace’s voice said over the cockpit speakers as it relayed through from the lab to the Argus. ‘I could detect no gaps which were not intended. I’m sending the data over for your technicians to double check anyway.’

‘Thank you, Doctor Wallace,’ the Captain of the Argus said in reply. ‘We couldn’t have done this as effectively without you and the Hyde.’

‘My pleasure, Captain.’

‘Uh, the techs are telling me that they’d like a second run through, just to be sure.’

‘I believe that would be acceptable,’ Wallace replied. Aneka thought he sounded entirely convincing, though the exchange was almost entirely for any Navy ships who might be listening. ‘Captain Drake?’

‘Sounds good to me. Perhaps a different position?’

‘Yes, wait a second, please… Could you take us to two kilometres outside the current fleet boundary? Toward the outer system edge, I think. We’ll scan from there.’

‘We’ll confirm position when we’re there.’ Drake gave Shannon a nod.

‘Are we still going to be covered?’ Aneka asked.

‘That position is within the main jamming envelope,’ Wallace replied, ‘and it will put the fleet between us and New Earth, but there is significantly less danger of our warp field affecting the nearby ships.’

‘Okay. You’re the expert.’

There was a chuckle from the other end of the intercom. ‘Why yes, I am.’

Aneka smiled and said, ‘Aggy?’

‘The warp trajectory is laid in,’ the computer responded. ‘I will initiate engine start-up as soon as the jamming field is in place. We will be ready to leave fifty-eight seconds after that.’

‘We’re in position,’ Shannon said.

Drake hit the comms key. ‘Garnet Hyde to Argus, we are in position. Doctor Wallace suggests a ninety-second jamming burst.’

‘Thank you, Captain. We’re activating the system in three… two… one…’ The transmission dissolved into static.

‘We’ve got a good, solid jamming field,’ Wallace said after a couple of seconds. ‘No gaps at all this time.’

‘Time to warp, fifty-six seconds,’ Shannon said. ‘If anyone wants to jump ship, now’s way too late to attempt it.’

Aneka laughed. ‘What would happen to someone outside the ship when it goes into warp?’

‘The field extends around the hull for several metres,’ Drake said. ‘As long as you’re inside it you’d be dragged with us, but you tend to slip toward the edge. At the edge… Well, it’s not nice.’

‘Part of you drops into normal space,’ Wallace said, ‘while part of you is still within the warp envelope. You get stretched out into a molecular string fairly quickly. It’s a relatively fast, more or less painless death.’

‘Important safety tip then,’ Aneka said, grimacing.

‘Warp in three,’ Shannon stated, not bothering to count it down before she hit the control that launched them into faster-than-light travel. The stars ahead of the ship blurred and shifted rapidly toward the blue end of the spectrum, and they were gone.

19.7.529 FSC.

‘So, what
are
we going to do about the sleeping arrangements?’ Aneka asked.

The mess room in the Hyde was fairly crowded. Cassandra, who did not eat, had elected to stand. The table was full. Technically the ship could handle the load on the life support systems, but Drake and Bashford were both a little concerned over the logistics, especially since they had no idea what they would meet when they got to their destination.

‘I know I complain every time I get up,’ Gillian said, ‘but I’m happy to sleep this one out.’

‘And if she’s going under, I will,’ Bash added.

‘You and Cassandra aren’t really a resource issue anyway,’ Drake commented to Aneka.

‘I guess we’ll sleep it out,’ Monkey said, glancing at Delta. She nodded, even if she did not look pleased.

‘I guess I should,’ Ella put in.

‘And we only need one pilot,’ Shannon stated.

‘We’ll split it,’ Drake said, nodding. ‘I’ll take the first fifty days, you take it from there?’ He received a nod in reply. ‘Which means Abby doesn’t really need to go under.’

‘We don’t have data on how your body would respond, Abigail,’ Wallace said. ‘It should be fine, but if there’s no need, I’d suggest staying awake.’

Abby sighed. ‘If you think it’s safer.’

‘You can bunk with me if Ella’s sleeping,’ Aneka told her. ‘Us Earth girls should stick together.’ Abby gave her a grin in response. ‘As long as you don’t mind Cassandra watching you sleep. She probably will.’

‘Which does bring us to my requirements,’ Cassandra said. ‘I will need routine maintenance a few times on the flight.’

‘I can handle that,’ Aneka told her. ‘I learned the basics to keep Ella’s eyes up to spec. I can handle the work on you.’

‘Then we are ready. I assume you will be staying awake, Doctor?’ the android said to her boss.

‘Cold sleep does horrible things to my digestion,’ Wallace replied. ‘I have plenty of work to be getting on with.’

‘All right,’ Drake said. ‘We’ll get everyone in the pods after dinner tonight.’

‘Good,’ Ella stated happily. She looked at Abby. ‘If you don’t mind, I’ll be needing the cabin for a few hours to say goodnight to my partner.’

‘A few hours?’ Abby replied.

‘It’s going to be a long night.’

~~~

‘What do you think we’ve got waiting for us?’ Ella asked as she lay in Aneka’s arms.

‘I’ve no idea,’ Aneka replied. ‘The only thing I can think of that would really make a difference to this war is Negral, and that’s a stellar remnant.’

‘Yeah, but what if they survived somehow?’

‘How? Their star was some sort of super-collapsed, ultra-dense degenerate matter and they blew it up. I mean, it’s hard to get a bigger explosion. The gravity wave and gamma pulse almost took out the Delta Brigantia weeks later.’

‘I agree. It would take a miracle, but if Winter thinks she’s got something that big, and there’s nothing else we can think of…’

‘Well,’ Aneka said, ‘there’s one other thing, but it’s just as unlikely.’

‘Oh?’

‘A bunch of Xinti willing to fight for the Jenlay.’

Ella frowned. ‘If they worked out what the Herosians did and decided that everyone else could be saved…’

‘We’ll know in a hundred and ten days.’

‘Wake me up in a hundred. If we’re going to have a horrible death, I want to be really happy before we go.’

‘And if we don’t die?’

‘I’ll still be really happy.’

The Islands, New Earth, 20.7.529 FSC.

‘Reports are starting to come in from Beryum,’ Truelove said from the wall screen. She was at home, and behind her Elroy could see Justine wandering back and forth wearing a short, Nusilk slip. Normally Elroy would have been amused, or aroused, but today it just reminded him of Ollander.

‘I’m going to assume from your expression that the attempt to recapture that world was unsuccessful.’

‘Norton sent nowhere near enough ships to mount a viable attempt. We think it was a total loss, though some ships may have got out. We won’t know for sure for a few days.’

Elroy swallowed back bile and nodded. ‘What did you tell the Oversight Committee?’

Truelove’s lips twitched. ‘I knew about the Garnet Hyde, but it was not an FSA operation and therefore none of their business.’

‘And I assume they were exceptionally happy about that?’

‘Usher just about blew her stack, but there was nothing she could do.’

‘The Administration was similarly unhappy,’ Elroy stated. ‘But they were also presented with a sealed deal, and could also do nothing about it. Let’s just hope Aneka is right about this.’

‘I trust her, but it’s going to take time. It’s over a hundred days to their destination.’

‘You know where they’re going?’

‘Not the coordinates. Safer that I don’t. I know the timescales.’

Elroy’s thin lips pursed. ‘Say a hundred and fifteen before we can possibly hear anything. Over three months. This is going to be difficult.’

‘If anyone can keep a lid on this, you can, Senator.’

‘Thank you for the vote of confidence. I hope it’s deserved.’

FScV Garnet Hyde, 2.8.529 FSC.

‘You have got an amazing body,’ Abby commented as Cassandra finished taking off her shipsuit.

Cassandra smiled at her, a little timidly. ‘Thank you, Abby, though it is that of a relatively well-known sex robot. Many Jenlay view me as… “off the shelf.” Your lack of familiarity is working for me.’

‘You’re selling yourself short,’ Aneka told her. ‘Whoever designed you, they had a reasonably good eye.’ She sniffed. ‘We don’t have a fancy rig, so we’re going to have to make do with the table.’

Sighing, Cassandra clambered up onto the small table bolted to the room’s floor and lay down on her stomach. She looked uncomfortable, but not because of the position.

‘Still bothered about us seeing you opened up?’ Aneka asked.

‘It is not exactly me at my best,’ Cassandra replied. ‘However, it needs to be done.’

‘And I for one,’ Al said, his voice going out to his friend over radio, ‘do not find it even remotely off-putting.’

Cassandra turned her head to give Aneka, and thus Al, a smile. ‘Initiating shutdown. You may proceed when ready, Aneka.’ Her head lowered onto her arms, her body went limp, and two panels hinged back from a seam which appeared from nowhere along her spine.

‘That’s amazing,’ Abby said. ‘I mean, you can’t even tell there’s anything there until it opens.’

Aneka was busy locating the charging port near the base of Cassandra’s spine. ‘That’s bioplastic for you.’ She plugged in a heavy power cable and was rewarded with a red charging light. ‘That’ll take about an hour, the diagnostics will be faster.’

‘And you learned this to work on Ella’s eyes?’

‘Not quite like this, but yes. There isn’t a panel in her head or anything. It’s done by remote. Delta can do it too. She’s actually better than me. As long as there’s nothing wrong, nothing too complex anyway, I can handle it.’

‘But you don’t need this?’ Abby asked, looking up and down Aneka’s body.

‘I do, but I have a bunch of nanobots that do it constantly. Every morning, when I wake up, I get the diagnostic readouts. They usually say “optimal.”’

‘Not always?’

‘I’ve been known to take significant damage. An Enforcer came fairly close to taking me out entirely.’

‘The one you mentioned to Charley?’

‘Uh-huh. I wear heavier armour these days.’ Aneka plugged in a diagnostic computer and began its test sequence. ‘Twenty minutes and then we just wait for her batteries to charge up.’ She glanced at Abby. ‘You know, you’re not used to robots, but you seem to be taking this in your stride.’