Steel Beneath the Skin Read online

  There was silence as Aneka sat staring at Ella. She did not appear to be angry, or violent, or anything really. Just stunned. ‘That’s insane,’ she said after about a minute. Her voice was quiet, and uncertain. ‘I’m… I feel like… me. I can feel… I feel…’ Her voice stopped. She stopped. She just sat there, unmoving, not even breathing, her eyes blank.

  ‘What happened?’ Gilroy’s voice said over the speakers. ‘The readings on her electrical activity just dropped sharply.’

  ‘I think… I think she crashed. Shock? I’m going to sit here until she comes back.’

  ‘If she comes back.’

  Ella did not answer, she just pulled her knees up, mimicking Aneka’s posture, and settled down to wait.

  ~~~

  Aneka watched as text scrolled past her vision field. She did not take it all in, but what she saw seemed to be diagnostic information. Actuator systems, power systems, biological activity, sensors. The final statement was an “unexpected process halt” report stating that her systems had successfully dumped short term memory to long term after the event. Ella had been telling the truth. At least that was what it looked like considering that she was watching her body go through what amounted to a start-up health check.

  Ella was still there, where she had been when Aneka had blacked out, which was four hours ago, according to the downtime statement she had seen. The lights in the room had been dimmed and the redhead was sprawled in her chair, eyes closed. The rhythmic breathing, the steady rise and fall of her chest, indicated that she was, most likely, asleep.

  Aneka sat still and took in what she could see. The room, and the one beyond the window as best she could tell, had bare metal walls which looked like hammered steel. The floor was smoother, but with ridges which presumably improved traction. There were screens which looked more or less like the LCD screens she was used to, but a lot thinner and in some cases transparent, outside the window. Instruments and machines of various types she had no clue about could be seen beyond those. There was no one out there watching, though she had to figure there were cameras she could not see in the room, so someone could have been monitoring remotely.

  Then there was Ella. She was a pretty girl. Cute might be the right term. Asleep and not smiling she looked kind of sad. Aneka found herself wanting to see the girl smile again; she had a really cheerful smile, it made you feel better seeing it. Her breasts were on the smallish side, her body slim without any excessive muscle, but still toned. The suit she was wearing was clearly some sort of spacesuit. It was very thin, but there were ridges in the fabric which suggested some structure. The fabric itself looked like plastic, but it clung to her skin more like rubber. It really clung, following every contour.

  Reaching out slowly, Aneka put her finger on Ella’s knee, which happened to be the closest available body part. The suit felt like plastic, slick, like polythene. When she pulled back and looked up, Ella was awake and smiling. She really did look so much better when she was smiling.

  ‘You’re awake,’ Ella said, stating the obvious. ‘We were a little worried I’d broken you.’

  ‘Broken, yeah. So, I watched my start-up sequence this time. I guess you’re right. I’m a robot.’

  ‘Not a robot exactly,’ Ella said urgently. ‘Well, yes, a robot, but you’re more than just a hunk of metal.’

  Aneka lifted her hand, watched as she curled and straightened her fingers. ‘No, this looks like living flesh. A cyborg? I’m a Terminator Series sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor?’ She gave a half-hearted grin. ‘My brother was so into sci-fi. He’d think this was great… except he’s been dead for a thousand years.’

  Ella jumped on the positive. ‘Fridgy! You remember you had a brother? Your memory’s returning?’

  ‘Fragments. I remember I had a younger brother, and I remember getting “The Terminator” for him on DVD and getting told off because my dad thought he was too young. I can’t remember what he looked like, or his name. I still can’t remember my name.’

  ‘I can help you with that.’ The voice was male and it came from the speakers. Aneka looked up to see a man standing at the window. He was tall, powerfully built, good looking, and dressed in the same sort of one-piece suit as the Ella. His head was bald, but he had the kind of skull that looked good on. He held up a plastic card. ‘Aneka Jansen. While you were out a couple of us went over to check the room we found you in for any evidence. Assuming this isn’t just some faked ID, you were working for a company named Anderson Security Consulting. We found a little booklet too, a “passport,” in the same name. That says you were a citizen of “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”’

  ‘That’s a terrible picture. The passport photo was worse. I nearly went back to the shop to get it done better.’

  ‘What about this consulting company?’ Ella asked. ‘Consulting sounds technical, maybe you were a programmer, researcher?’ Considering the muscled body it seemed unlikely, but you never knew.

  Aneka’s eyes narrowed. ‘We did private security and hostage rescue. I was a soldier… later a mercenary, basically. Yeah. I was working in… Iraq! My team and I were sent in to pull out four engineers taken hostage by insurgents…’

  Iraq, May 16th, 2011.

  The enclave consisted of four mud-brick buildings within a low wall. The squad of six moved in on it by twos, keeping low. The guard on the south side died silently when his throat was slit. Another two guards died just as efficiently before the team swept in toward the buildings.

  There were lights on in only one building. Aneka pointed Sims at the window. It was boarded shut, but his grenade launcher would make short work of that. Perry and Quinn were motioned to the door. She nodded to Sims as soon as they were in position. The launcher spoke twice and two stun grenades shattered the wood over the window. A second later the interior of the building filled with bright light and smoke, and two loud bangs left the occupants wondering what was happening long enough for the breach team to enter. There was the sound of automatic weapons fire.

  Three insurgents, half dressed and carrying AK-47s burst out of one of the other buildings. They made it barely three yards before they were cut down.

  ‘Hostages secure,’ Perry’s voice announced over their field radios.

  ‘Move them out,’ Aneka said. ‘Sims, Dalton, Teague, make sure we’re not followed.’

  Everything was running smoothly so far, just the way Aneka liked it. She stood up and took point out of the enclosure as Perry and Quinn hustled their charges out of the building. Four hundred yards out and they would make sure they were in the clear, and then bring in the evac chopper. Plain sailing.

  They put the hostages in the centre of a circle and stood, weapons pointed outward. All four man were battered, bruised, and in shock, but they were safe now. The three remaining members of the extraction team moved up a couple of minutes later. Sims gave an “OK” sign as he walked toward Aneka. There had been no trouble. It was almost going too smoothly.

  ‘Sims, get the chopper on the radio,’ Aneka said as Dalton and Teague joined the circle.

  ‘I think it’s here,’ Sims replied, pointing upward. There was a light in the sky where he was pointing, pulsing red. Then the area was saturated with bright light and wind.

  ‘What the fuck’s he doing?!’ Quinn yelled.

  Aneka covered her eyes and looked up at the vehicle overhead. There was wind, but no noise from the blades. She was just about to say that she did not think it was the helicopter when something hit her in the chest. Her entire body jerked and her vision blurred. For a fraction of a second she heard yelling, and then there was nothing.

  FScV Garnet Hyde, 13.6.523 FSC.

  ‘Sounds like an electronic rifle hit,’ the man behind the window said. ‘Puts several thousand volts through you guided by a couple of laser beams. Feels like someone plugged you into the mains, then you black out.’

  ‘A ranged taser,’ Aneka said. ‘Yeah, something like that.’

 
; ‘Uh, Aneka, this is Leo Bashford, one of our facilitators,’ Ella said by way of introduction.

  Aneka looked out at the bald man. Probably ex-military, fairly intense, and watching her carefully. ‘I don’t remember what happened after that. There were ten of us there. Have you found anyone else?’

  Bashford shook his head. ‘We did a bit more searching where we found you. It was basically a section of the ship’s hold. We haven’t had time to go through the rest of the ship. Besides which, we need Ella for that and she’s been in here.’

  ‘Uh, yeah. Thank you for waiting for me to come around.’ She let herself sit back against the wall, though she continued hiding herself behind her legs as much as possible. ‘Thanks for, well, rescuing me, I guess.’

  ‘We were passing by,’ Bashford said. ‘You were lucky the ship detected the mass. You were a navigational hazard, and a hard one to detect. A dead ship in space is next to invisible, especially at warp velocities. Once the ship saw you it was obliged to slow down and wake one of the flight crew. They have to file a Navigation Hazard Report.’

  ‘But Drake, the captain, realised what he was looking at and woke the rest of us,’ Ella continued. ‘We’re with the University of New Earth doing archaeology, anthropology, that kind of thing.’

  ‘Wait… “New Earth”?’

  Ella’s face straightened. ‘Joval Five was renamed as New Earth in two-fifty-five by our calendar. Old Earth… well, we’re not even sure where it is now. We have a rough idea, obviously, but it’s not worth finding anyway. The Xinti… it’s a cinder. We lost so much…’

  Aneka looked at her, feeling cold. She wondered absently whether she should have that kind of physical reaction when she was made of steel and plastic. Of course Ella had said she was partially organic… ‘I think there’s some stuff you’re not telling me again.’

  There was a soft thud as the pressure door shut. Both Aneka and Ella looked around to see that Bashford had entered the isolation room. Ella frowned at him. ‘You said…’

  ‘And now I’m ignoring what I said. Tell her about the War.’ He moved to stand behind Ella, looking closely at Aneka.

  ‘Your time was a pretty big one for the Jenlay,’ Ella began. Apparently she considered that and added, ‘You remember “jenlay” is what we call what you called humans, right? Anyway, it must have been not long after you were… captured because it was a xinti ship that crashed and suddenly jenlay had faster than light drives. Within a generation we were out there among the stars and we discovered the Herosians, and then the Torem. And then it all went to gopi. The Xinti came in like they had a divine purpose, sweeping across the galaxy and wiping out anything in their path. The Herosian home world went first, then Old Earth. The Torem brought out some old technology from somewhere and turned the tide. It took almost a century, but we eventually drove the Xinti back.’

  ‘The Torem pulled out after Xinti Prime was turned into an asteroid belt,’ Bashford continued. ‘The Jenlay did the same eventually, but the Herosians kept going until there were no xinti left. The Xinti burned Earth, we shattered their world.’

  Aneka looked at him for a second wondering what he wanted from her. ‘Good?’

  ‘Good?’ he repeated. ‘Is that all?’

  ‘Look, these “Xinti” took me out of a desert, did God knows what to my team, ripped my mind out of my skull, and stuffed it into a robot. I’m not Aneka Jansen, I’m… her ghost. They killed me and couldn’t even let me die properly. I hate them, but they’re all dead. I can’t even get any payback.’ She sagged. ‘I can’t go home because home is deader than I am. A thousand years gone. My parents and brother died… They probably never knew what happened.’ Her head fell forward onto her knees. ‘Shit.’

  There was silence for a few seconds and then Bashford said, ‘Drake and Gillian asked me to talk to you, see whether I believed this “mind emulation” thing. Gillian’s convinced, but not impartial. Ella’s very partial. Drake wanted my opinion.’

  ‘And?’ Ella asked.

  ‘I believe her. So… You’re going to be let out of this room. You’ll bunk with Ella, partially because you’ll need help adapting to life aboard ship, and Ella’s a psychologist. And partially because we don’t want you alone at any time. You’ll have a member of crew with you at all times. You’ll stick to the common rooms and your cabin unless we take you somewhere else.’

  ‘That’s fair,’ Aneka said. She was feeling cold again. ’I’m not entirely sure I’d be so trusting. Do I get a kinky spacesuit to wear?’

  ‘You don’t need one,’ Bashford replied. ‘This is a standard ship-suit. Add gloves and a life support helmet and it’s a functional vacuum suit. Standard policy is to wear one at all times in case of sudden decompression. The analysis on your body suggests you’re quite capable of surviving that circumstance without.’

  ‘I’ll need something to wear,’ Aneka countered and her voice sounded distant, even to her.

  ‘I’ll show you the fabricator system,’ Ella said. ‘Not that you need to wear anything.’ Considering the outfits the two of them were wearing, they were clearly not shy of their bodies, but Aneka felt the need to be at least somewhat dressed before she walked around the ship. At least she thought she did. Right now it felt like it did not matter much. Actually, nothing mattered much.

  ‘Great,’ she said, hearing the numb quality in her own voice, ‘but I think I’d like to lie down for a bit. I think the shock is starting to settle in.’

  ‘We’ll leave you to rest,’ Ella said, looking a little reluctant to leave, but she did, leaving Aneka to stretch out on the bunk.

  She realised she was shaking. A high-tech, synthetic body and she was shaking. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. It did not come easily.

  ~~~

  Aneka stepped through the door of the one communal rooms on the ship, her steps faltering a little as she heard the conversation dip. She knew it was not her choice of clothing, even if her outfit would have caused a stir in any restaurant on Earth. She had selected a sleeveless, high-hipped leotard made from a black, plastic material called Ultraskin according to the fabricator, which stretched over her skin and was translucent enough to allow medical sensors unrestricted access because Ella had said that was the reason for the semi-transparent quality of the ship-suits. The translucency varied to give a bit of form and expose some cleavage, she liked the way it hugged her body, and it met her requirement for something to wear while suggesting she was not worried that everyone else was more or less on show, even if she was not really used to it. She felt a need to fit in.

  Ella had also suggested that not everyone would be entirely happy about her being a robot, or a “synthetic” as Ella insisted on referring to her as. ‘Jenlay aren’t too worried, mostly. It’s… Well… There was a strong prejudice against it after the Xinti War, but practicality won out eventually. For most people. Most jenlay anyway.’ Aneka’s confidence had not been bolstered by the statement.

  Now she was walking in to meet the rest of the crew and it was clear that some of them were either nervous about her, or they did not like her much. The mess doubled as a briefing room and the centrepiece was a circular table with ten chairs around it. Currently there were only six crew, which left plenty of free spaces, and that was fine with Aneka since a couple of the crew did not look like they wanted anything to do with her.

  As far as she could tell, these were the youngest ones. Shannon Patton was the Captain’s second and if Aneka had not seen her on duty earlier she would have guessed the woman was there to just keep Drake’s sexual frustrations in check. Relatively short, big in the bust and hips, narrow in the waist, pretty and blonde, she looked like some sort of space bimbo but was quite professional when the situation called for it. Monkey was the other “problem.” He was a good looking kid with a fit, muscled body, a shock of black hair and an attempt at a goatee, and he watched Aneka constantly when he was near her. The look in his eyes suggested that he was not watching her figure.

 
; Drake had never given his first name. He was ex-military, Aneka could tell by the way he kept his brown hair cropped short against his skull, the way he held his body, the lean muscle stretched over a solid skeleton. He was handsome, rugged. His nose had been broken at some point and had healed a little crooked; it just made him a little unique. None of the crew were ugly, or even average, but Drake was the only one with any form of imperfection. He was more used to keeping his emotions hidden as well, but Aneka got the distinct impression that he was at least a little wary of her.

  That left Bashford, Gilroy, and Ella. Bashford maintained a professional neutrality, apparently unconcerned about the being they had found drifting in space. Gilroy was also professional, but there was a hint of enthusiastic interest. The scientist seemed to think of Aneka as a potential source of huge amounts of information, once her memory returned anyway. Ella was… Ella waved for Aneka to sit beside her, a big grin on her face as she sat down next to Gilroy. Aneka had not quite worked out the young woman’s angle yet, but she seemed keen to spend as much time with her new find as possible.

  ‘You’ve at least met everyone, right?’ Ella said as Aneka sat down beside her.

  ‘Yeah, in passing at least. Is this really all the crew?’

  ‘This is a fairly small ship, Miss Jansen,’ Drake said. He had a confident, commanding voice to go with that military bearing. ‘Three hundred-six tons, warp-capable, automated to a high degree. Shannon and I are really all that’s required, and that’s only for the active parts of the mission.’

  Aneka nodded. ‘So you guys…?’

  ‘Ella and I handle the actual science,’ Gilroy said, ‘Bashford and Monkey are facilitators. They get us in, do the heavy lifting, keep us safe, generally make sure we can do what we came to do.’

  ‘Right.’ Aneka looked around the table. Everyone else was eating, but she did not feel hungry and had no idea what her dietary requirements were. Presumably if she had organic parts she needed to eat… Patton’s pretty blue eyes were watching her. ‘Hey, is anyone in the future ugly?’ It was a calculated question and it produced the result she was hoping for; suddenly everyone was laughing. Aneka did not care whether they were laughing with or at her, they were laughing.