The Winter War Read online

  One of the women got to her feet. She was significantly younger and, from her position at the table, probably one of the junior members. Fair-haired, attractive, and very slim, she had a studious look about her which suggested a science background rather than administration. ‘Pardon me, ma’am. Councillor Holly Marsden. I’m a sociologist and I’ve been out of the city many times to observe the surface culture. I’m afraid they don’t really like us.’

  ‘Well no,’ Ella said flatly. ‘I pretended to be one of you people when we visited Matlock. It was mortifying. They think you’re selfish, arrogant, and generally out there to make sure they’re doing what you need. You’ve kept them deprived of technology which could massively improve their lives. But, when I helped them they started reacting a lot better to me.’

  ‘Basically,’ Aneka continued, ‘it’s going to take time and effort to overcome the distrust, but it’s not impossible. I’m not suggesting you suddenly bring them up to your technological level. Aside from anything else they’ve got quite an idyllic culture going, at least in the country. There’s no reason to spoil it. But you could improve their medical facilities, train some of their people to use better medical equipment, maybe improve their transport systems and veterinary skills. They’ll be better off, and you’ll get more productive suppliers and better produce.’

  Marsden, younger and perhaps a little more adaptable because of it, looked toward Harper. ‘Miss Jansen is right about the conditions out there, Councillor. Except that while the farming communities are quite pleasant, the more industrial zones could be significantly improved. I’m not really qualified to judge, but I’d say that ore production and refining could be greatly increased with the use of our technology. The increase in safety would bring dividends in relations with the surface communities.’

  Harper actually cracked a smile; Aneka could not recall seeing him give a genuine one since she had met him. He looked toward Gillian. ‘This is the kind of innovative thinking you were talking about, Doctor Gilroy?’

  ‘Precisely the kind, Councillor,’ Gillian replied, smiling back.

  ‘Very well. Councillor Marsden…’ Marsden stopped herself halfway back to her seat. ‘I believe that we older members are less suited to this new form of relations than our more recent inductees. You have elected yourself head of the Subcommittee for Improved Surface Relations.’ Marsden blinked a couple of times; she had not expected that. ‘We’ll handle things at this end. Form a group and come to me with resource requirements by Monday midday.’

  ‘Yes, Councillor.’ Aneka tried hard not to laugh. It was Thursday; Harper was not giving her much time to work with.

  Harper was almost beaming now. ‘Excellent. I believe that we have begun an entirely new phase in the life of our city and our world. Working with our new friends I can see a bright future ahead of us.’

  There was clapping. Aneka did not join in because she was busy trying not to cringe at the little speech. A bright future, huh? The man should have been a politician.

  Matlock, 13th August.

  Daniel Linden, Reeve of Matlock, looked up from his papers as Joshua Daventry entered his study. Daventry was the town’s one and only medical professional which, in truth, was not saying a lot. He knew more about the ailments of sheep than he did about Humans, but he was the best they had and he was looking exceptionally grey at the moment.

  ‘Joshua, what…?’

  ‘Stella Cooper,’ Daventry said, almost as though that should explain everything. ‘She died about twenty minutes ago.’

  Linden swallowed. ‘And you’re sure of your diagnosis?’

  ‘Even I can recognise plague when I see it, Dan. Though I’ll admit this is nothing like what the books say. It’s more serious. Got into her lungs and choked her to death, and that’s not supposed to happen so quickly. I’ve quarantined the house, and the other cases…’

  ‘How many now?’

  ‘Thirty. Most are still bubonic, but the pneumonic cases are increasing. It’s spreading fast and the usual controls aren’t working. Penicillin doesn’t work. Cooper was old sure enough, but her son’s likely to be the next body and he’s built like a brick shithouse! We’ve no choice. We’ve got to send word to the Prime City for help.’

  Linden frowned. ‘Oh, and I’m sure they’ll come running…’

  ‘They’ve no choice, Dan. If this gets out of town… Damn it! Even if all they do is quarantine us all and wait for us to die it’s better than the alternative.’

  The Reeve’s frown only deepened. ‘It’s still keeping to the west and north, isn’t it?’

  ‘We’ve had no cases in this part of town. Yet. It’s just a matter of time.’

  Linden got to his feet, picked up his cane, and limped out past the doctor. ‘Abby?’ he yelled, and his daughter emerged from the lounge. ‘Pack some essentials, get the shotgun, and go to the workshop. Drag Bridger away from whatever he’s doing and tell him he’s to drive you down to the Prime City. You’re not to stop for anything.’

  Abigail’s brow creased. ‘Dad?’

  ‘You tell them we’ve got plague. A really bad one. Stella Cooper’s dead and there’ll be more to follow soon enough. I don’t care if you have to kiss Manu Dei’s boots, you get us help up here.’

  Prime City, 14th August.

  There were two gyms in the entire, ten-kilometre span of Prime City, which said a lot about the general attitude of its Citizens about fitness. Yrimtan had engineered them for improved stamina and health, and the majority of them felt that it was almost a sin to suggest that they needed to be fitter. It was Saturday morning and there were few people lifting weights or using any of the machines. Those who were could be identified as Enforcers, Yrimtan’s police force. Their role in the new society was yet to be fully decided and they all looked a little less sure of themselves than usual. The arrogant menace was gone as the Council decided whether they really needed a bunch of black-armoured, heavily armed thugs.

  Of course, Aneka reflected as she spotted for Ella, they look less menacing in exercise gear anyway. Actually, they looked little different from Ella currently. Shorts and T-shirts, a couple of leotards, lots of tanned, fit bodies with sheens of sweat, and everyone had a set of plugs in the back of their skull connected to implant computers.

  Ella was exercising partially because she thought she had let her exercises slide during the mission. Aneka had been teaching her some self-defence and she had been using their neighbour Dillon’s weights to beef herself up a little. Aneka had been a little surprised at how well-toned Ella had looked when they met again above Eshebbon. Of course, at the time she had been more surprised by the sudden gain of two or three cup sizes, but Ella had been a lot fitter too. Aneka suspected that she had been so enthusiastic about the exercise then to distract herself from Aneka being away, and right now the exercise was a distraction from sex.

  Aneka had to admit that the little redhead was doing well. Lying on her back she was bench pressing a hundred kilos in a steady rhythm, following up from a set of rapid, low weight reps earlier. Clearly the physical effort of shifting the weight was taking its toll, her skin was beaded with sweat, her expression was fixed and determined, and the muscles in her arms, chest, and shoulders were bunching noticeably as she pushed the bar upward. Truth be told, Aneka was thoroughly enjoying the view even if the idea was to keep Ella’s mind away from that kind of thing.

  They had, in fact, attracted a small audience. Four or five of the gym users had migrated to closer equipment, and two men and a woman were simply standing watching. Aneka was unsure whether they were watching Ella pumping iron or watching her spotting for Ella, but she was moderately sure that none of them was watching the pretty girl with the big breasts straining and sweating. As far as she could tell, none of the Citizens had a libido worth a damn.

  In a way it was kind of refreshing after spending a few years in a society that considered sex to be a recreation to be enjoyed at every opportunity. The Citizens thought of intercourse as a ch
ore, something assigned as a task when there was a need to replace lost population. At the very best they viewed it as a last-gasp alternative to their entertainment of choice; they were pretty much all addicted to what they called cyber-drugs. Aneka had seen them pushing small, coloured plugs into the data slots on their necks, but knew that these pastel-coloured ones were the equivalent of taking a mild sedative compared to the bold-coloured ones which were roughly the same as mainlining heroine.

  Right now, through an interface between Aneka’s internal computers and Ella’s implants, she could tell that Ella’s body was coursing with endorphins. That was providing a palliative to the longing she had for the direct nerve stimulation to which she was addicted. She was trying to break that addiction, but the Citizens watching her were hooked with no desire to get off their drug of choice.

  Ella pushed upward on the bar she was holding and Aneka saw her brow furrowing, the look of intense concentration, and the slight tremble in her arms. ‘That’s enough, love.’

  ‘One… more,’ Ella grunted, and started to lower the weights again. Her arms gave out halfway down and the bar landed in Aneka’s palms, stopping instantly.

  ‘No, I think that’s enough.’ The bar went up and was dropped onto the rests as though it weighed nothing. Aneka noticed the Enforcers looking slightly impressed, though she was not sure whether that was as a result of her display of strength or at how well Ella had done.

  Ella, however, pouted. ‘I could’ve managed another.’

  ‘Before or after the bar crushed your larynx?’

  ‘After, obviously.’ Ella sat up, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat from her face before it got into her eyes.

  ‘There is a security alert at the surface entrance,’ Al said before Aneka could respond. ‘I believe you should see this.’ A window appeared in her vision field showing security camera images. A slightly flat-chested, black-haired girl was in the surface lobby talking animatedly to two Enforcers. She looked scared out of her mind, and desperate.

  ‘Abigail? Al, put me through to the current security lead up there.’ She waited for an indicator to appear confirming the connection. ‘Lieutenant, this is Aneka Jansen…’

  ‘Uh… Miss Jansen, yes, of course, I wasn’t expecting you to… What can I do for you?’

  Aneka cringed at the man’s tone; he sounded as scared as Abigail looked. ‘The girl your men are talking to, Abigail Linden of Matlock, yes?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am. She’s babbling about plague…’

  ‘There is no way her father would let her out of town without a very serious reason, Lieutenant. Have her transferred to the nearest medical centre. I want her and anyone she’s with checked for any form of disease, and ask Councillor Marsden to meet me there.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am!’ In the video view she had of the lobby Aneka could see Enforcers suddenly shifting from complacent disregard to action. The place was so hierarchical and downright honest that they would take orders from anyone who seemed like they had authority, never mind someone who they seemed to think was their queen.

  ‘Come on, Ella,’ Aneka said aloud. ‘We seem to have a problem.’

  ~~~

  Marsden was waiting at the door of the small first-aid facility on the surface when Aneka and Ella arrived. The building had probably been some sort of military administration facility when it had been part of Aldershot Army Base, but now most of the interior had been stripped out to make way for a large but defensible lobby. There was a bank of lifts leading down to the city at the back of that, and the only other rooms were a security room used by the Enforcers and a moderately small, but very functional, medical bay.

  ‘The techs have checked both of them out,’ Marsden said as the couple approached. ‘Despite her claims, neither of them is infected with anything. On the other hand they both seem worried and the girl is quite insistent that she be allowed to plead her case with Manu Dei. Of course, that’s not possible…’

  ‘I’ll talk to her,’ Aneka replied, stepping around the Councillor.

  ‘Good,’ Marsden said. ‘To be honest, we’re having trouble deciphering her accent.’

  Abigail’s eyes bulged as she saw Aneka walking toward her. Whether that was surprise at seeing a woman she thought was Ella’s servant, or the sight of said woman in a semi-transparent, Ultraskin leotard was unclear. Whatever, her expression of worry tinged with fear and mild panic gave way to what looked like hope. ‘Aneka! I didn’t think you’d be here, but please, you’ve got to help us!’ Her eyes flicked to Aneka’s right and widened again as she saw Ella dressed in her exercise gear.

  ‘We’ll do everything we can, Abigail,’ Aneka said. ‘What’s going on?’

  The girl swallowed, trying to compose herself, and then began to explain. ‘It started a few days ago. A few people got sick and we figured that it was just some sort of flu, but then the buboes started appearing. Doctor Daventry said he’d never seen it progress so fast, and the drugs didn’t work, and then they started coughing…’

  ‘Wait, all of them?’ The speaker was a tall man in an outfit with red stripes on his arms: an insignia that denoted medical and emergency staff.

  Abigail nodded. ‘Yes, sir. All of them. Old Missus Cooper died soon after that and Dad sent me to get help. He told me I should beg at Manu Dei’s feet if I had to…’

  ‘That’s not going to be possible,’ Aneka said, ‘or necessary.’ She looked at the medic. ‘Isn’t that kind of a quick progression to the pneumonic form?’

  He nodded emphatically, looking perplexed. ‘Sounds like it’s antibiotic resistant and the bubonic form is going directly to pneumonic rather than septicaemic. That’s extremely unusual and potentially very dangerous.’

  ‘All right, so what do you do about it?’

  He looked at her and she could tell that he knew she was not going to like what he was about to say. ‘Well… normally we’d quarantine the town and sterilise after the disease has run…’

  Aneka nodded. ‘Normally, but considering that things are now different…?’

  He swallowed. ‘We, uh, have some old biological containment vehicles which we could get up there in… maybe a day. They have equipment for creating anti-bacterial and anti-viral agents, and I think we could get a portable nanoviral unit on one in short order. If we can identify the genome we can program a tailored nanophage…’

  ‘Very good,’ Aneka told him, smiling. She turned to Marsden. ‘I’ll go up there ahead of the transport in the shuttle. I think you should come too, and we’ll need your best infectious disease specialist, hazmat gear, anything else they think might be useful. The shuttle has genetic analysis equipment which Ella can operate. We will take a squadron of Enforcers up with us. We don’t want people leaving or straying in until it’s cleared. Uh… Anything else?’

  The Councillor shook her head. ‘I believe that should be everything, ma’am. I’ll start making the arrangements.’

  Aneka nodded and turned back to Abigail. ‘You’ll fly up with us…’

  ‘Fly?!’ It came out as a squeak.

  ‘Yes, fly. Can your friend there go with the medical team, make sure they get there?’

  Bridger had not met Aneka before and was not as surprised as Abigail was at the apparent change in authority. ‘I can do that, ma’am. I’ll lead them up in my truck.’

  ‘Good man. All right, let’s get moving. Abigail, you come with us. We’ll have you home and this sorted out in no time.’

  Shuttle, Flying North.

  Abigail was gripping the arm rests of the co-pilot’s seat as though she might float off at any moment, or they might come crashing down out of the sky. This was despite the fact that the ship’s artificial gravity made it feel more or less as though they were quite stationary.

  ‘It’s perfectly safe, you know?’ Aneka said. ‘I’m quite a good pilot and the weather’s good. This thing could get us into space without any worries.’

  ‘Space!’

  ‘We’re not going that high. We’ll be ba
ck in Matlock in… twelve minutes.’

  ‘Good.’ The Reeve’s daughter relaxed a little, probably by an effort of will. ‘Uh… How is it that the Citizens seem to be following your orders?’

  ‘Ah, that.’ Aneka frowned, deciding on how to explain it, and decided on honesty; Abigail deserved it. ‘We lied to you when we came into town. About where we came from that is. We’re not from the city; we’re from another planet.’

  Abigail forced a giggle. ‘Don’t believe you. You’re not green.’

  ‘Huh. We come from a long way away. A world called New Earth orbiting around another sun, and we came to see where Humanity came from. And then things went a bit wrong. Manu Dei is dead, but she was… Um, she was sort of a relative of mine and now she’s gone the Citizens keep looking to me to tell them what to do. I don’t want them to, but sometimes it’s useful. We’re trying to get them organised to be a bit more… community minded.’

  ‘You mean like helping us now instead of letting us die and studying the plague afterward.’

  ‘Like that, yes.’

  There was silence for a second and Aneka wondered whether Abigail felt hurt by the deception. But then… ‘Well, that explains why Ella was so nice. And I was half-expecting the Enforcers to just shoot me when we turned up like that, so I guess they are better now than they were.’

  As if on cue, Ella walked up from the back and stopped, leaning against Aneka’s flight chair. She grinned at Abigail. ‘If it’s any consolation, our high-tech passengers are sitting there looking ashen as well. It’s freaky that no one here has ever flown before.’

  ‘The view is kind of beautiful,’ Abigail offered, ‘but I don’t know how you can be so calm.’

  ‘Put her on a normal aircraft and she isn’t,’ Aneka replied.

  ‘This has anti-gravity,’ Ella said. ‘It’s perfectly safe. Normal aircraft are just held up by air pressure!’

  Aneka laughed. ‘You know, most people would think being held up on magic, physics-breaking forces would be the less safe option.’