Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour Read Free Page B

interested in her in that way. His father had told him so many stories about Xinti combat robots that he still thought he might freak out if he went to bed with one. Not that she was really worried about missing out. It would make getting back to Ella that much better.
    Turning off the water, Aneka opened the cubicle and found herself a towel. A cup of coffee and a little time relaxing in her room and she would be ready to go set up Indaia’s equipment. The shower had helped, but right now the coffee seemed like a really good idea.
    ~~~
    ‘What does this thing do?’ Delta asked as she helped Aneka manhandle the large central emitter unit into position. Monkey was busy positioning the four satellite receivers, which were significantly smaller and lighter.
    That the women were doing the heavy lifting might have been considered odd, even in this day and age. Morphologically, the sexes could still be differentiated in a similar manner to the way Humans were in Aneka’s original time. Men, on average, still had greater upper-body strength in particular. Aneka and Delta were hardly average; Aneka was basically a robot and Delta had grown up on a heavy-gravity world.
    Basically, Delta was an Amazon. Tall and heavily muscled, she was a pretty girl with a rather cute face which belied her physique. These days she wore her auburn hair long, which worked far better for her, and she wore push-up bras to compensate for the effect of thirty years of high gravity before leaving her home world. She was not quite the perfection of beauty that you expected to see from a core world citizen, but Monkey thought she was beauty incarnate.
    ‘Basically,’ Monkey said, ‘it’s a sonar system. Normal sonar uses audible frequencies or ultrasound; this thing uses infrasound, very low frequencies. That’s why the emitter is so big.’ Monkey was of a relatively slight build, especially compared to his two female companions, but having Delta living with him had resulted in a number of changes, including some increase in muscle mass. He still wore has dark hair as something of an unkempt cap, and he still sported a valiant attempt at a goatee beard, but his expression these days tended to be more content than unsure.
    ‘So it sends low frequency pulses into the ground and detects the returns, and that maps different density regions in the rock,’ Delta said, voicing her thoughts as she worked out the operating principle.
    ‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka confirmed. ‘Indaia has come up with some sort of novel focussing system which lets the pulses go deeper.’
    ‘And the receivers are a new design too,’ Monkey added. ‘She thinks she can get about a twenty per cent increase in resolution over previous versions.’
    Delta and Aneka were carefully lowering the emitter into place over an area of ground they had previously cleared of debris and rubble. ‘Won’t the pulses mess with Adams’ seismometers?’ Delta asked.
    ‘Actually, Indaia’s using them as extra sensors; basically they create a synthetic aperture that raises the resolution of her kit, and the pulse returns can be filtered out pretty easily.’
    Delta giggled. ‘I bet Adams is still iffy about it.’
    ‘He wants the data Indaia’s system can give him, so he has to put up with it,’ Aneka replied. ‘That’s why she’s here. She’s a bit of an oddity for a Torem, being interested in geology and planets, but she’s good at what she does.’ She checked the level on the emitter, made a couple of adjustments, and nodded. ‘I think this is ready. How are you doing, David?’
    ‘Uh… That’s the last receiver and it’s now… Yeah, it’s showing as active.’
    Aneka nodded. ‘Jansen to Indaia. We’re ready to activate your emitter.’
    ‘Thank you, Aneka,’ the reply came back almost immediately. ‘I am receiving telemetry from the receivers. Please activate the emitter.’
    Aneka flipped open the Molly guard over a switch, shifted the switch up, and then dropped the guard