Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour (13 page)

No, there was no way they were wriggling out of this one, and that was just going to make it harder to salvage anything out of this mess. Elroy had used another analogy, something about cornered rats. Ollander had thought it was distinctly appropriate, considering they were talking about the Herosians.

Sighing again, she slipped her long legs out from under the sheets and padded across the deeply piled carpet to the bathroom. A shower was going to do her good, relieve the stress a little.

Of course, that was another thing. The Council had dispatched Elroy to meet with the Old Earth representative and deal with things on New Earth, and her little affair with him had been one of the few bright spots in her life here. She smiled as she started the water running. He was older than she was, and much older than her two partners, but he sure knew what he was doing in bed. And on the carpet. And in the shower. And on the kitchen counter…

She shook her head and stepped into the shower. If she kept thinking like that she was going to be depressed all day.

Instead, she realised as the water soaked into her long, black hair, she was probably going to be frustrated and angry all day. Maybe depressed would have been better.

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

‘How long before we get any news from these Senate meetings?’ Aneka asked.

‘Well they put a new communications link in last year,’ Ella replied from the kitchen, ‘but it’s still a seventeen-hour lag.’

Aneka gave a grunt of displeasure, her eyes on the silent wall screen which was displaying almost non-stop coverage of the current Herosian situation on CFM. ‘Just like my time. They’ve got no news, but they have to report something so they keep recycling the same scraps over and over.’

Giggling, Ella handed Aneka a mug of Ashtenna coffee. ‘Here, this’ll help.’

‘Only because it tastes good. You know, I finally worked out what it is about this stuff that’s so good.’

‘Oh?’ Ella walked around the couch to settle down beside Aneka, hips pressed together.

Aneka swapped her mug to the other hand so that she could actually lift it and then slipped her right arm around Ella’s shoulders. ‘Yeah. Coffee usually smells great and tastes like a watered down version of its scent. This stuff tastes the way it smells.’

‘Huh, yeah. It’s probably best the caffeine doesn’t affect you. You seem kind of hyped.’

‘I’m restless. Do you think Kat and Dillon would be up for a trip to the beach?’

‘Probably. Since you started monitoring Kat’s bio-chip on your runs she says she’s getting a much more effective workout.’ She sipped her coffee, savouring the taste for a second. ‘And while you’re out running, I’ll persuade Dillon to give you another wrestling match.’

Aneka laughed. ‘You know he doesn’t entirely like doing that.’ Which was true. When Aneka’s secret nature had been revealed, Dillon had made a joke about how they could have got up to all sorts of things had they known she was almost indestructible. In reality he was a fairly gentle man and Kat’s suggestion that he try wrestling Aneka had turned out to be a bit of a washout. It had not entirely helped that he knew Aneka was letting him win at the end. They had given it another go, making it more game and less sport, and that had worked a bit better…

‘This is for a good cause. I know we can’t tire you out, but a bit of rough sex will do you good.’ She thought about it for a second and then added, ‘We’ll put you in a corset and you can pretend to be forcing him. I think big old Dillon might actually really like that.’

Aneka gave a slight shrug. ‘I’ll try anything once. Not going to work though. I feel like I’m watching a very slow, multi-car pile-up and I can’t do anything to stop it.’

‘That’s making the assumption that it’s your job to stop it, love. It’s not. It’s down to the politicians and, if they fuck it up, the Navy.’

Aneka sighed. ‘Oh that makes me feel
so
much better.’

Senate Grand Forum, Obati IV.

The Herosians were either in denial, or there was something very bad going on. None of the Herosian politicians seemed to be willing to accept the truth and they were so vehement about it that Ollander was starting to have doubts herself.

Herosian Senators had been filing onto the podium for the last hour to give long speeches. All of them boiled down to one thing, however. They knew nothing of these ships. Whatever the truth was, these ships could not be anything to do with the Herosian government. Had there not been attacks on Herosian shipping? It was ridiculous to think such ships could have been hidden from the politicians and they knew nothing of them.

The first counterargument had been that the Jenlay had made the whole thing up. This was some sort of conspiracy between the two Earths to discredit the Herosians. That might have worked if the Torem had gone for it, but they were having none of it. They pointed out that Old Earth had been quite reluctant to become involved with the Jenlay, and that all the data on the wreck appeared to be genuine.

Now the slightly less belligerent Herosians were suggesting either a mercenary group or a rogue faction within the military. The latter made more sense, and it was true that Herosian society tended to form cliques and groups which operated secretly. That was usually over business deals and cartels, however. A mercenary group was a possibility; one had been responsible for the assault on New Earth. But then there was the problem of the uniforms. Still, those pushing the military faction theory could point to the recent attempt to kill or capture Aneka Jansen which had been ascribed to a rogue Admiral.

Currently it seemed like even the Jenlay were willing to entertain the ‘rogue navy’ idea. Ollander had to admit that it might give them a way out. At the very least it could bring about a delay in open hostilities while the politicians demanded action from the military. There were already negotiations going on regarding Jenlay military units being deployed into the Herosian border regions to search for facilities being used by the rogues.

Ollander settled back in her seat amid the huge, curving ranks of seating the Senators used, and tried to relax. Another Herosian was climbing up to say the same things as his three predecessors and she
really
needed to relax.

Tristar Township, New Earth.

Gillian had been ignoring Bashford’s activities for the last couple of hours, but when he started disassembling and running component checks on his weapons she decided that she needed to intervene.

‘Bash, love, what are you doing?’ Sort of an intervention anyway.

‘Mostly,’ the bald facilitator replied, ‘I’m keeping busy.’

‘By checking every bit of survival gear you have at home?’

‘Uh-huh. And taking inventory. I’m not sure we won’t need it and you know I like to prepare when I have the time.’

Gillian watched him as he continued running tests on the dining table. Then she looked around at the wall screen where CFM was still rehashing the few released details of the Herosian pirate ship. The sound was off, but the reporters and pundits looked
very
serious.

‘I’m going to go over the city emergency plans,’ she said. ‘I recall they’re on record at the Administration’s information site.’

‘Not a bad idea.’

Senate Grand Forum.

The tall, blue-and-white clad form of Senator Yakis ambled toward Ollander as she sat eating lunch at one of the tables overlooking the ocean. He looked like he was ambling with a purpose, but she ignored him for now. She enjoyed being in this spot, watching the water washing up the beach. It was relaxing, and she needed relaxing.

Obati IV had been selected as the site for the Senate for two reasons. It was relatively central, at least between the Jenlay and Herosian regions. More importantly, no one wanted it. Resource poor and essentially flooded, the only land took the form of islands, some fairly large, but most no bigger than a mountain top sticking up from the vast, worldwide ocean. The island with the Senate buildings on had never been given a real name; it was just the Senate Grand Forum.

It had been selected primarily for the size, which was sufficient for the buildings planned for it, and for the proximity of a group of other islands, which were used for the spaceport, diplomatic residences, and staff housing. It was, however, quite beautiful in places and the balcony overlooking the black sand beach with the deep blue water beyond was one of Ollander’s favourite places on any world.

‘Enjoying the view?’ The Torem had ambled within vocal range.

Ollander smiled up at him, nodding toward the seat opposite. ‘It’s a very nice view.’

‘I grew up on stations and habitats,’ Yakis replied, folding himself onto the seat. ‘I tend to prefer starfields.’ Ollander gave a slight shrug, conceding the vagaries of aesthetics. ‘It occurs to me,’ Yakis went on, ‘that while the prevailing theory has merit, and does give us time to work on a political solution, it does have one flaw that may “come back to bite us.” I believe that is the right idiomatic phrase.’

Ollander’s lips twitched. ‘That works. What’s this flaw?’

Yakis gave a small grunt of a laugh. Torem tended to learn to mimic Jenlay mannerisms rather than really understand them, and they tended to get them a little wrong. ‘Herosian politicians tend to think themselves significantly more important than the rest of their society does. It’s quite possible that their entire military is involved, but no one bothered to tell their Senators.’

Ollander frowned. ‘A slight exaggeration, perhaps…’

‘Perhaps.’

‘The point still stands, however. What do your colleagues say?’

‘I have not discussed the matter with them. They are convinced that, should the Herosians escalate, they will move on the Jenlay so long as we stay out of the fight.’

Ollander paled visibly. ‘That… is likely a valid assumption, but…’

‘It would be a temporary respite. Divide and conquer. My people are blinded by their own mortality. They take excessive care to ensure the survival of the species, ignoring the long term for immediate threats.’

‘Ah… Why are you telling me this?’

‘Someone needs to be dealing with this matter, and I believe you are best placed to engage those who need to know.’

‘The Navy? The FSA? No, not the latter, they’re still cleaning up their mess…’

‘Neither, I think. Someone you
know
can be trusted to tell the right people. Or the right person.’ The Torem slipped out of his seat and started away before Ollander could question him further. ‘I’m quite sure you’ll do the right thing, Senator.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 2.12.528 FSC.

The first reports of the Senate meetings were coming through when Aneka and Ella got back to their apartment, and they were not what Aneka would have described as hopeful.

‘This is Alexander Hook reporting from the Senate Grand Forum where discussions have broken for the day.’ The reporter was a typical Jenlay: fit, attractive, and virtually indistinguishable from every other presenter on the media channels. ‘Following a report by Rear Admiral Crofton on the new evidence of Herosian pirate activity, the Senate got down to discussing the matter.’

The screen cut away from the reporter to footage of some Herosian droning on at a podium. Aneka imagined there was droning; what she heard was the voiceover. ‘Initial arguments suggested that the sudden delivery of such damning evidence was a conspiracy, but this was quickly changed to a more logical argument that the terrorist attacks were part of an operation by rogue military agencies within the Herosian Navy.’

‘That… makes a certain amount of sense,’ Ella commented. Aneka gave a grunt in reply.

‘Discussions continued this afternoon,’ Hook went on, ‘largely around how these rogue elements can be uncovered and dealt with. Three of the five Herosian Councillors are returning to Herosian space tomorrow to begin the search, but Jenlay Senators are continuing to push for a
full
naval response from all states.’

‘Mute,’ Aneka commanded, and the sound died.

‘It sounds like they’ve bought into this conspiracy business,’ Ella said.

‘Yeah, it does.’

‘You don’t believe it?’

‘I don’t believe there isn’t some high-level government involvement in this… Computer, scan the media feeds for the Herosians who spoke at the Senate today. Were any of them Councillors?’

‘Searching…’ the bland voice of the apartment’s computer announced. ‘No. None of the Herosian speakers at the Senate today were Council members.’

Aneka nodded. ‘None of them want to be actually seen lying.’

‘Have you always been this pessimistic?’

‘I prefer to call it “realistic cynicism.”’

‘Katelyn Looper is requesting admittance,’ the computer announced.

‘Let her in,’ Ella said. Then she waited for the door to open before adding, ‘You know you don’t have to ask, Kat.’

‘Yeah, but it seemed appropriate,’ Katelyn said as she walked in. She was wearing a quite smart skirt suit, which surprised Aneka, though she took off the jacket as she walked and a more Kat-like, nearly transparent blouse was under it. ‘I wanted to ask a favour of Aneka.’

‘Sure,’ Aneka replied, ‘assuming I can help.’

‘I want you to teach me to fight. Unarmed combat. I’ve done a little boxing, for fitness, but I want to learn how to do it properly.’

Aneka frowned, glancing at the wall screen. ‘You’re not worried about invading Herosians, are you? Unarmed is pretty useless against laser rifles.’

‘Huh? Oh! Oh no. I mean, I guess it might be useful for self-defence, but no. It’s for Dillon.’

‘Dillon?’

‘Yeah. After last night… I’ve seen that look before. The “kid in a candy store” grin? The last time he was like that was when Ella got her boobs done. I am
not
getting breast implants, not even for him, but I’ll learn to throw him around and play at topping him.’

‘It’s very good for fitness training too,’ Ella pointed out.

‘Uh… okay,’ Aneka said. ‘There’s a dojo at the university. Not that they call it a dojo, but it’ll do. I’ll see if I can book a regular slot, and then I’ll start selling tickets.’