Aneka Jansen 6: The Lowest Depths of Shame by Niall Teasdale Page B

unaided, and none of them ever left the hospital block. And they all came aboard with the clothes they were wearing. Medical scans would have detected implants… Do you mean the FSA or this Pierce person who’s been nagging me to allow a technical team aboard?’
    ‘For practical purposes it’s the same thing,’ Truelove replied. ‘Analysts suggesting other things are being quietly ignored. There are plenty of trustworthy people in the Agency, but Pierce is doing a rather effective information management job.’
    ‘Perhaps my choice of Head was not as well informed as I thought,’ Elroy sighed. ‘He seemed like a good idea at the time.’
    ‘He was,’ Truelove countered. ‘It just… hasn’t worked out as well as it could have. I don’t think this plot was in place when he was installed. Something happened. Someone had an idea and Pierce is in a position to influence things the way they want.’
    ‘It had to start when Lonar fell so easily,’ Tasker stated. ‘It would take time to work out a plan for Beryum and I don’t think Thackett was working off his own bat.’
    ‘And someone faked the footage from Marchant,’ Sharissa said, nodding. ‘Around the sixth or seventh of the fifth. It started then, even if they just told Thackett to be ready for new orders when he arrived at Beryum.’
    ‘We attacked fairly quickly after arriving at Beryum,’ Tasker said. ‘They couldn’t have got new orders to him unless…’
    ‘Unless a ship took them there before you arrived and transmitted them when you arrived,’ Truelove said. ‘It’s thirteen days from Dokar to Beryum in a courier-type ship or a frigate. They could have spent ages planning and dispatched a ship long before you arrived.’
    ‘Great, so we know how they did it. What do we do about it?’
    ‘Wait,’ Elroy said. ‘So far there have been a few rumblings about continuing the offensive, but nothing overt. If they try to push for further attacks I can rally support for stepping the Navy down. Until then I’m fighting smoke.’
    ‘Well, Ambassador Linden will be back in about eleven days,’ Tasker said. ‘Then it’s her problem.’
    Elroy looked at her. ‘They’re coming back? All of them, or just Abigail?’
    ‘Everyone,’ Truelove said, ‘plus another “ambassador” of sorts. They’ll want to talk to you.’
    ‘Oh, I’ll want to talk to them.’
    Gwy.
    ‘Oh…’ Ella said as she stood in the empty room filled with stars. Gwy was projecting the sensor feed from the Hyde, via Aggy, rather than her own external view; it seemed as though they were hanging in empty space, flying among the suns of other worlds.
    ‘You get how it works?’ Aneka asked. ‘Rather than using virtual versions of physical controls, you just want the ship to move and Gwy does what you wish with the engines.’
    ‘Uh-huh,’ Ella replied. Physically she was lying on the bed in Gwy’s cabin. Mentally she was standing beside Aneka as they walked through space. ‘It might take a little practice, but I get it. I wonder why we didn’t think of it before.’
    Aneka shrugged. ‘Apparently it was the first thing Shannon thought of.’
    Ella giggled and then turned around, hooked her arms around Aneka’s neck, and kissed her. It was not a quick kiss: she let it linger, her tongue playing over Aneka’s as if tasting her. Then she broke the kiss and stepped back, grinning.
    ‘What was that for?’ Aneka asked.
    ‘I wanted to know if it felt the same.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘I… I don’t think I can tell the difference if there is one.’
    Aneka smirked at her lover. Ella’s real body was dressed in a rather brief, white pantsuit. The top crossed over her breasts and had a halter, the pants graded to translucent as they went down her legs, and there were slits running up the front of each leg to just below her hip. Clothes on the Amethyst Hyde were a useful place to clip your ‘puff,’ as Monkey called it. The Personal Force Field devices were basically