Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour Read Free

Aneka turned and left the room. Grumand, the seventh member of the team, was in the corridor, just leaving the room he shared with Garlan. He was a Scout, a member of the Survey Service, and he fit the mould nicely. Compact, fit, powerfully built, he had short dark hair, and deep brown eyes, and he was, of course, good-looking; every Jenlay was good-looking.
    ‘If possible,’ he said without preamble, ‘I’d like to get that survey of the structures here done soon. After the sleep period maybe?’
    Aneka checked her chronometers. Farrington’s World was tidally locked to its only moon, which had a number of interesting effects. More or less all the water on the planet was on one side of it for one thing. It also resulted in almost a ninety Federal-standard hour day so they were having to stick to a more normal work-sleep cycle to stay sane, and they were trying to get as much done as possible during their forty-five hours of daylight.
    ‘We’re getting Indaia’s kit set up in the next few hours, then I’ll be offlining for a bit. I should be up whenever you are. Just grab me and we’ll go.’
    ‘Offlining… Uh, yeah, of course. I keep forgetting.’
    Aneka grinned at him. ‘You’ve probably no idea how happy I am that I can say things like that openly, but it’s still nice when people don’t remember. Or when they don’t care.’
    Grumand grunted a laugh. ‘I don’t care if you’re a Bemzol from the planet Yog as long as you do your job as well as they say you do, but it’s still difficult to see you as some sort of robot. I mean, you’re…’ He waved a hand absently.
    Aneka’s grin broadened. Generally, even though everyone now knew she was basically a synthetic copy of Aneka Jansen’s mind running on a highly complex computer system in a robot body, they found it hard to react to her in the manner their basic instincts told them to. Jenlay had a distrust of robots and cyborgs stemming from the Xinti War. The Xinti had used cybernetic and robotic bodies, and they had built Aneka’s body, but they had done an exemplary job of copying the original barring a few details. What people saw was a very attractive woman with a lot of long, tight muscle. She had a slim waist, not overly wide hips, long legs, and a very expansive chest. The Xinti had looked at the Internet for inspiration regarding the ideal Human female, and so had added an extra cup size or so to her already ample breasts, and made them more pert. Her face could have graced a catwalk model with wide cheekbones and hollow cheeks, and very clear, bright blue eyes, and her hair was a smooth cap of silver-white strands.
    Since she did not need a suit to deal with the heat outside, she was in her preferred outfit. That was an Ultraskin leotard that Ella had designed for her. It had one arm and was largely translucent, showing most of her body. There were also Ultraskin stockings and heavy, armoured boots. She was not wearing her customary gun belt, but she would be when they went to do the survey.
    ‘Thanks,’ Aneka said. ‘I get the general idea. It’s nice to be appreciated.’ She slipped past him, heading for storage and he carried on toward the mess.
    The shower was running when Aneka got into the room where storage crates took up one side and a portable bathroom unit took up the other. The unit was self-contained, recycled the water it used, and handled waste management, which all made life far easier than it could have been. However, it was a cramped fit in there and the lighting was poor. Most of them left the outer door open unless they were using the toilet. Through the frosted Polyglass shower screen, Aneka could see a female shape and it looked too tall to be Garlan’s girlfriend, Bicks. The water cut off suddenly and the screen opened.
    Sure enough, it was Rice, the team’s very bored biologist. She was above average height, and had better than average looks. Her hair was long and platinum blonde, her eyes were icy blue, her