The Cold Steel Mind (33 page)

Janna lowered her voice. ‘You know how her friends Kat and Dillon are always filming their exploits? I saw one of those. She doesn’t know, so not a word. You aren’t missing out on a damn thing, hon. Don’t you tell her I said so or I’ll have to deny it.’

Aneka laughed. ‘Not a word.’

There was a groan from the bedroom doorway. ‘What’s funny?’ Ella groaned. ‘And why does it have to be so loud?’

‘Janna was just telling me funny stories about you as a kid,’ Aneka lied.

‘Oh, not the ice cream sandwich?’

‘Oh yes,’ Aneka replied, grinning. She looked at Janna. ‘I’ll get the painkillers if you pour her some coffee.’

‘Of course,’ Janna replied, ‘and then we can have a nice fried breakfast.’

Ella let out a groan loud enough to make her head hurt.

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Gillian Gilroy lived in what Aneka thought of as a gated community on the south-west side of Yorkbridge. It was a subway ride and a walk from Mid-town, and Aneka was glad she did not have to carry much. Her carryall was now stuffed with the presents that had been bought the day before, the costumes she had made for herself and Ella, and her two new machine pistols. She was not actually expecting to need the last two additions to the list, but she also believed that it was better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

It was almost dark when they arrived at the low building with its perfectly manicured lawn, and Monkey, Delta, and Bashford were already there. Gillian met them at the door wearing an iridescent, blue gown which hung from her left shoulder loosely enough that it threatened to reveal her right breast whenever she moved, and was split from the right hip all the way down. She smiled brightly at the three women on her doorstep. ‘Welcome. You must be Janna, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Come in, all of you. The others should be here soon.’

Aneka walked in behind Ella and her mother. This was not going to be a family Christmas like the ones she had had on Old Earth, that was for sure. There was going to be plenty of drinking, that was also for sure. The following day she was going to cook a meal for anyone still around, though that was not exactly going to be a Christmas dinner in the form she remembered. They had decided to hand out presents just after midnight, and it had been arranged a little more like a ‘Secret Santa’ system since buying gifts for everyone would have been hard to arrange in the time they had. She was pretty sure that there was going to be infinitely more sex at this party as well; drink and Jenlay tended to lead inexorably towards copulation of one form or another. Despite all that, it was going to be a party, at Christmas, and she was going to enjoy it and avoid the melancholy that had afflicted her the year before.

Monkey and Delta were in the hot tub at the back of the house, and Delta went quite pink at being introduced to Ella’s mother while naked. Quite why Aneka could not understand since Janna, who had had to buy a suitable dress for the party, was clad in an indecently short tube of silver fishnet and ridiculously high, silver heels.

Half an hour later everyone else had arrived: first Drake and Shannon, then Wallace, and finally Cassandra. Janna, who worked in the sex industry if New Earth could be said to have one, had obviously seen a fair number of Eroticon androids and was a little surprised when one turned up to the party. She was also adept enough at reading people to realise very quickly that Cassandra was not typical of her model.

‘Another AI,’ Janna said once the introductions were made. ‘I go my whole life without meeting one and then I get two in a week.’

‘She met Aggy when we got home,’ Aneka explained.

Cassandra nodded. ‘I am a little different. She was designed, I’m emergent. I woke up by accident, if you will.’

‘Oh,’ Janna said as though this made all the difference, ‘then you’re really no different from a Jenlay. Most Jenlay don’t ever wake up so you’re actually better.’

After that the party got underway properly. Gillian had set up the wall screen in the lounge to play various non-stop videos. Mostly they were the ludicrous sex comedies so popular as entertainment these days, but there were a few sitcoms from one of the channels which specialised in something different. Most importantly for Aneka, Bashford had brought several crates of the beer he brewed. Beer which actually tasted like beer. The only people who would drink it were Aneka and him, so they had it all to themselves, or that was the theory. Janna tried some, declared that it was ‘interesting,’ and then helped consume it. There was still plenty to go around. Ella was sitting in the lounge watching TV and giggling at
everything
after two glasses of wine.

At some point Aneka found herself sitting out on the patio with Drake. Monkey and Delta were back in the hot tub nearby, but paying them no attention at all. Drake was amused, but not making any comments.

‘You’re on your own,’ Aneka said.

‘I lent Shannon out to Janna,’ Drake replied. ‘I’d join in, but I recall that she’s not into men.’

‘Ella thinks it’s something to do with how she got the money to get the two of them off Harriamon and pay the medical bills.’

‘She’s a remarkable woman.’

‘She is. Less of a ditz than I first gave her credit for too.’ Drake looked across at her, an eyebrow rising. ‘Ditz is… scatter-brained.’

‘Ah. Good word. Have you had any trouble with reporters?’

‘No, none. I know Aggy’s been monitoring the news channels. She hasn’t reported anything aside from rehashes of the stuff we presented at the press conference.’

‘Shannon was approached by someone claiming to be from Consolidated Federal. Said she would pay well for detailed information.’

Aneka frowned. Consolidated Federal Media was probably the largest media company in the Federation. Very well respected. ‘That seems unlikely. Surely they wouldn’t risk a ban.’

‘That’s what we thought. Turns out they’ve never heard of this woman. I ran it past Federal Security and they say no one called Patrice Bogary is currently on New Earth. The only person they could find of that name died six months ago on Lerada Three.’

‘Fake identity,’ Aneka mused. ‘Some other agency making sure they couldn’t be traced?’

‘That’s what the FSA thinks.’

‘What did she look like?’

‘Ah well, that’s another thing. The best description Shannon could give was tall, very attractive, and blonde. That’s not much to go on.’

‘Shannon’s normally more observant than that.’

‘Yes, she is. But if you see or are approached by someone like that, make sure you get a good picture of her stored in that photographic memory of yours.’

‘I can’t really avoid it.’

‘Huh.’ He gave her a grin. ‘Enough serious gopi. This is a party and that gate guard isn’t letting any reporters in to bother us. I don’t think I’m nearly drunk enough anyway.’ He got to his feet and headed for the house.

Aneka stayed where she was, leaning back in her chair to look up at the sky. There was next to no light pollution in Yorkbridge and there were no clouds. The stars shone bright in the black above her, flickering slightly due to atmospheric distortion. Even this close to midnight it was still warm; New Earth tended to have an average temperature close to tropical Old Earth, and very stable weather since there were no moons. It was a beautiful night, though not very much like Christmas in England.

Ella’s giggle alerted Aneka to the redhead’s arrival. Suddenly she had a lap full of affectionate girl. ‘It’s almost midnight,’ Ella said. ‘Shouldn’t we get ready?’

‘We have twenty minutes,’ Aneka replied, ‘and it won’t take long to get changed. You’ve barely anything to take off as it is.’ To emphasise the statement, Aneka slipped her hand under Ella’s micro-skirt, a process which still left part of her wrist exposed. Ella let out a soft moan; alcohol made her horny.
But what doesn’t?

‘I suppose it can wait a little longer,’ Ella whispered.

Aneka’s fingers pressed against Ella’s labia and began to circle. ‘You need to sober up a little anyway.’

‘Mmm… If you keep that up… oh… I’ll be useless for anything.’

Pressing more firmly against the swelling nub under her fingertips, Aneka said, ‘Just a little taste of what you’ll get later.’

Ella pouted and then kissed Aneka’s neck. ‘Tease.’

‘Uh-huh. You love it.’

‘I love you too.’ She gasped as Aneka gave her clitoris a gentle squeeze and then withdrew her hand.

‘All right, let’s go get dressed up and play Santa.’

‘You’re mean. You better make good on that promise.’

Aneka laughed as she lifted Ella to her feet. ‘Don’t I always?’

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‘Ho, ho, ho!’ Aneka said, hamming up the exaggerated laugh and grinning as she walked into the lounge with Ella. No one really got it, of course, but she felt it had to be done seeing as she was playing Santa.

Admittedly Santa was generally a fat guy in a red suit with lots of white fur around the cuffs. Aneka had decided that fur was entirely impractical, partially due to the heat and partially because the fabricator would have taken ages to work the material. Instead she had gone for a high-collared, long-sleeved mini-dress in red mesh with a leaf pattern woven into it, along with red thigh-high boots. Ella was Santa’s elf, in a dress built out of huge Ultraskin leaves. Since it was Ella, the outfit was translucent and she was in bright green high heels rather than boots. She was grinning like a maniac.

‘Traditionally,’ Aneka said as she walked into the circle of people sitting around the entertainment area of the lounge, ‘we give presents at Christmas. The myth was that a man named Saint Nicholas gave money to a poor family so that their daughter could marry, if I’m remembering it right. So presents are given to honour him.’ She gave Gillian a grin. ‘Frankly, Christmas was a mix of so many myths and religious festivals that it doesn’t make much sense. Maybe next year we can try recreating the Saturnalia.’

‘We’ll worry about that next year,’ Gillian replied. ‘Come on, let’s get on with the presents.’

Laughing, Aneka put her bag down and unzipped it. ‘This is going to be random. I’ll take the presents out and my lovely elf will be handing them out. First rule, if it’s wearable, you have to put it on.’ She reached into the bag and pulled out the first package, a box wrapped in fairly plain, but very bright, metallic paper. ‘Second rule, knowing Federal culture, if it’s something deviant and sexual we will be expecting a demonstration later. And this one is for… Delta.’

Ella took the box from her and strutted like a catwalk model across the room to where Delta was sitting. The facilitator was actually looking nervous as she started ripping open the paper. There was the kind of box Aneka associated with high-end lingerie shops like Agent Provocateur inside and, sure enough, the box contained a beautiful, Nusilk teddy. It was fairly sheer, but not drastically revealing, and in a bright red which complimented her eyes and hair, and she was terribly embarrassed at having to put it on, but looked gorgeous in it. Aneka, who knew who the secret present buyers were, glanced at Bashford. Clearly he had more of an eye for dressing women than his rather brusque exterior would lead you to believe. Monkey was certainly appreciating it.

And so it went on. As the bag emptied more of the women ended up in lingerie or dresses while the men mostly got gadgets of some sort, though Drake found himself wearing a very small pair of briefs; Aneka suspected that Shannon had guessed what would happen to clothes purchases since she had been the one buying for Drake. Shannon was currently wearing a G-string and a cup-less push-up bra, so she had hardly got away scot-free herself.

They ended up with two things in the bag and neither Aneka nor Ella had had a present, so it was pretty obvious whose they were. Aneka reached in, glanced at the tag, and handed a blue paper-wrapped box to Ella. ‘Yours. Let’s hope it’s something embarrassing.’

Ella giggled, jiggling on the spot, and began tossing handfuls of paper aside. There was going to be no ‘saving the paper for next year’ with Ella. Beneath the wrapping was a black plastic case which looked kind of utilitarian. Ella frowned in bemusement and then opened it up, and went pink around the cheeks. ‘Oh wow… I’ve heard about these, but they’re expensive…’

Aneka peered in, seeing a flat gadget with what looked like three loops on top into which you slipped your fingers. There was a more recognisable device beside it; a probe which looked suitable for insertion, though it seemed a little thin for a dildo. ‘Uh… What is it?’ Aneka asked.

‘It’s a neurostim,’ Ella replied. ‘Here, we’re supposed to give a demo…’ Slipping her fingers into the loops, she lifted out the pad, pressed it against Aneka’s arm, and put her index finger to the button which was now sitting under it. A small light came on which seemed to indicate it was working, but…

‘Is… Uh, is it supposed to do something?’

‘I would imagine,’ Wallace said, ‘that the device would have trouble working on Aneka.’ He glanced at Janna, realising that he was about to say something she should not know. ‘It was designed for a Jenlay, not an Old Earth Human. We’ve had a thousand years of genetic manipulation since her time.’ Well, Aneka was convinced.

‘You try it on me,’ Ella said, and then giggled. ‘That way I get to enjoy my present more.’

Frowning, Aneka took the palm plate from Ella and slipped it onto her hand. Pressing the switch, she placed the pad lightly against Ella’s arm. Nothing happened for a second and then Ella began to smile. The smile broadened slowly. ‘Mmm… that’s… nice…’ Aneka ran the device up over her shoulder and she let out a soft purr of pleasure.

‘What’s this thing doing to her?’ Aneka asked.

‘It’s an offshoot of the technology being developed to allow people to interface with computers directly,’ Wallace explained. ‘Of course, someone in our society had to come up with a way to make a sex toy out of it. It stimulates the nerves producing a pleasant…’ He paused, watching the way Ella was reacting. ‘…a very pleasant sensation. As I understand it the effect tends to multiply when used in the erogenous zones.’