Steel Beneath the Skin (26 page)

‘That wasn’t actually on Alpha Mensae Four though,’ Aneka said. ‘They took me off a derelict ship.’

‘I know,’ Katelyn replied enthusiastically, ‘it was on the news. I get this image of Ella in a ship-suit floating through this ruined spaceship to discover you hidden away in a corner, with one red light, flickering, to show you were still alive.’

‘It was a cupboard, and she had two men with her, but that’s not far from it. They got me out of there just in time. Much longer and the stasis system would have packed in, and I’d have been another frozen slab of meat.’ Aneka was finding herself vaguely hypnotised by the action on-screen. For homemade porn it was surprisingly good. ‘Who was filming this?’

‘We have a robot camera we’ve trained to get the shots,’ Dillon replied. ‘Kate wasn’t keen on using a robot, but she loves the results.’

‘Not keen on robots, Kate?’

‘About as keen as most of the population. They scare me. But I have to admit the little ‘bot we got to do this is really good at catching the angles.’

‘You two been up to anything exciting?’ Ella asked.

‘The usual,’ Kate replied. ‘Work, rest, play. Dillon’s been pumping iron, and me, and I’ve been running. I’ve been going out to the beach once a ten-day and doing fifteen kilometres there.’

‘Improving your stamina?’

‘That’s the idea.’

‘I could, maybe, help with that,’ Aneka said. Both Dillon and Katelyn looked around at her. ‘I’m not an expert or anything, but I could lay out the exercise programme I had for the Army. That had a lot of stamina work in it.’

‘That’d be great, I’ve never had any professional help with this. Dillon’s all about the power.’

‘He’s got plenty of stamina,’ Ella commented. Aneka heard a sound which was very much like a zip being moved. ‘Aneka was a pretty top notch soldier. You should take a look at what she’s got.’

‘I intend to,’ Katelyn replied. Aneka was not sure whether that meant her training schedule or her.

‘It’s hard work,’ Aneka said, ‘but it certainly gets you very fit.’

‘If your body is the result, then yes.’

Dillon’s head rolled onto the back of the couch and he let out a moan. Aneka leaned  forward and looked around Ella. Dillon’s leather jeans were undone and Ella was slow-stroking him. Aneka shrugged and got to the floor on her knees, and then crawled around to kneel in front of Dillon. She looked at Ella. ‘May I?’ Ella pushed Dillon’s shaft forward and its owner let out a deep moan as Aneka’s tongue ran over the head. Another moan followed as she spread her lips about as wide as they would go and swallowed him, sucking hard. Then she pushed forward, driving his shaft all the way down her throat, and Dillon’s back arched.

‘Oh wow,’ Katelyn said as Aneka started to bob her head up and down. Aneka would have replied, but her mouth was full. She figured it looked impressive, but it was not like she had a gag reflex or a need to breathe.

~~~

Aneka found herself on her back with Dillon between her legs and Katelyn on her face. They had been at it for hours; Dillon certainly did not need to worry about his stamina. Aneka, of course, was a machine, figuratively and literally. Her tongue lapped and her kegel muscles clenched in time to Dillon’s thrusts, and she could feel another orgasm building. She had actually asked why her body was capable of having them and Al had said the Xinti had created an exact enough copy of her original body that her mind would accept it. It sounded like a slightly inadequate reason.

She felt the familiar rush, the explosion slowly forming in the brain she no longer had. Her body tightened and she heard Dillon let out a strangled cry before he rammed into her and climaxed himself. A second later and Aneka’s tongue had done its work. Aneka’s hands clamped over Katelyn’s iron-hard thighs to hold her down and keep the pleasure burning in her.

Aneka swam back out of a slight daze to the sound of clapping. Katelyn had rolled to one side and Aneka turned her head, licking her lips as she did so, to see a naked Ella applauding them from the edge of the bed. ‘Awesome. That’s got to go in your collection.’

Katelyn nodded weakly and Dillon let out a groan as he climbed off Aneka. It sounded like an affirmative sort of groan. Aneka propped herself up on her elbows to see a small robot slowly backing out of the room. It appeared to have a pair of cameras for a head and moved on smooth ball-like wheels. The camera robot. ‘I’ve never made a porn flick before,’ Aneka commented.

‘It’s okaying we’re filming, isn’t it?’ Katelyn asked. ‘It’s only for us and friends, and we can send you a copy if you like.’

‘As long as it doesn’t appear on the evening news, I guess it’s fine by me. Might even be educational.’

‘Never heard it called that before.’

‘I’ve a thousand years of sexual technique to catch up on.’

‘Lady!’ Dillon gasped. ‘Believe me, you’re doing just fine.’

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‘I knew he’d want to fuck your tits,’ Ella slurred as Aneka carried her up the stairs to their apartment. Ella’s clothes were clutched in Aneka’s hands, while Aneka’s dress was now a choker. The result of Dillon’s recent and final act was dripping from Aneka’s chin onto Ella’s stomach. The redhead did not appear to notice.

‘I’ll take a quick shower when we get in.’

Ella giggled. ‘No,
we’ll
take a longer shower.’

‘Haven’t you had enough for one evening? We’ve got work tomorrow.’

‘Please,’ Ella wheedled, ‘just one more come before bed?’

Ten minutes later, as Ella’s climax smashed through her and she danced and writhed on Aneka’s fingers, Aneka whispered, ‘You’re so going to regret this in the morning.’

University of New Earth.

‘Ella looks a little worse for wear,’ Gillian commented. She had taken Aneka out into the courtyard which formed the centre of the Admin building for a break from interviews.

‘Dinner and orgy with the neighbours last night,’ Aneka replied handing over one of the paper cups of coffee from the shop in the corner of the quad. ‘She’s hung-over and tired. She insisted I get her off one last time in the shower before we went to bed.’

‘Sounds like Ella. How did the evening go?’

‘Well, I didn’t make any notable social mistakes. Kate and Dillon seemed happy enough.’ Her lips twitched. ‘We can probably send you the video footage if you want to check my technique.’

‘I may take you up on the offer,’ Gillian replied smoothly. ‘However, I was more concerned about your reaction to being in a social situation with someone who does not know who you are.’ She sipped her coffee. ‘We have the dinner in a couple of days. Do you think you’re ready?’

‘If I say yes do I have to titty-fuck the Dean?’

Gillian made a strangling noise and spat coffee over an inoffensive plant. ‘No,’ she said, and then coughed a few times. ‘No, I don’t believe you’ll be required to do that.’

‘In that case, I’m probably about as ready as I’ll get. The story is I’m from Old Earth, not used to this place yet. That’ll cover most gaps.’

‘True,’ Gillian agreed, ‘but we have got a few people coming you’ll want to look out for. I got the list from Barriman’s office earlier this morning.’

‘Look out for and avoid, or look out for and talk to?’

‘Mostly the former. The ambassadors from the Herosians and the Torem are coming. The herosian is likely to be hostile. You were found on a xinti ship which is acceptable to most jenlay, but the Herosians…’ She sighed. ‘As soon as they heard about the ship they requested it be turned over to them for “summary destruction.” I suspect they are attempting to get you turned over to their custody as it is, and they haven’t been told about the data we recovered.’

Aneka’s nose wrinkled. ‘The more I hear about the Herosians, the more I like the Xinti. At least they were honestly sociopathic.’

Gillian bit her lip to avoid laughing. ‘The torem ambassador is okay, but if you let him corner you he could bore you to death, and all torem are telepaths. He may notice you’re thoughts are very silent. There’s a man he’ll be trying to avoid, Wallander Smart. He’s the current head of a religion based on the torem faith…’

‘Whoa, hold up, Doc. “Religion?” I thought you’d got rid of them all. I never noticed anything in the tutorials about religions.’

‘We still have a few. The Children of the Universe follow the tenets of the torem faith, more or less, and Smart has a tendency to suck up to any high-ranking torem he can lay his lips on the butt of. About the biggest contribution the Children have made to society as a whole is providing us with “Vashma” as an expletive.’ She seemed to consider the analogy for a second. ‘Not that torem have much of a butt. Smart is probably coming because he wants to see Ambassador Adjaxis, but he may have some idea about converting you, or something.’

‘Sounds wonderful.’

‘Boring, but not dangerous. Try not to push him through a wall, no matter how much the rest of the room would applaud you.’ She frowned and pulled out a PDA, unrolling the screen. ‘Yes, Barriman is bringing his partner…’

‘I thought he was into robots?’

‘He is, but publically he’s given that up and he took another partner about five years ago. Try to avoid looking surprised at the apparent age difference.’ Aneka had told Gillian that age could be an issue in relationships back in her time, mostly as a joke since Ella was so much older than she was. ‘There’s every evidence that she allowed the formal partnership just to get at his money. He, of course, wanted the appearance of normalcy.’

‘Let me guess, cute, blonde, substantial chest, not so bright?’

‘Actually, yes. Publicly anyway. I suspect she’s a lot smarter than she likes to appear.’

‘Huh. The more things change… Anyone else I should be careful of?’

‘Charles Hunter and his partner, Andromeda Parry. He’s the leader of a lobby movement called Humanity First. They believe that jenlay should leave the Federation and go out on their own, and they’re likely to see political capital in gaining your support.’

‘Really? Why?’

‘They go on a lot about “genetic purity” and finding the “best human material” to further the race. They prefer to use the old name. You’re an original, Old Earth human, perfect for their cause.’

Aneka laughed. ‘If only they knew.’

‘It’s probably better if they don’t.’

‘Amen to that.’

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The Grand Hall of the university was a two storey high room with a vaulted ceiling. It was a big room, a
very
big room, and Aneka felt somewhat dwarfed by it. It was also full of people, which was pretty daunting even if the majority of them were jenlay.

The Dean was a cleverer man than he appeared, it seemed. Rather than a sit down dinner, he had arranged a buffet spread across four huge tables at the sides of the room. This allowed Aneka to get away without eating, while telling everyone she met that she was either just about to grab something, or had just had a huge plate of some random foodstuff. Not that eating was a problem, she just did not really like half the stuff they had to eat.

Ella had taken them out shopping the night before, thankfully knowing exactly where to get suitable dresses for the evening. She had picked what she called a cocktail dress, though Aneka would not have described it that way. Almost indecently short, it was bright red, opaque on the left side, and almost transparent on the right. The divide was carefully angled so that her genital area was covered, but that still left one breast on display. Aneka had wanted something long, and got it. Her gown was a silver, translucent material; a very fine metallic mesh. It fell from her left shoulder over her breasts and back to her right hip where it was connected to the skirt by a silver flower over her right hip. The skirt itself was long, but split all the way up to the flower. Six-inch, stiletto heels in metallic silver completed the outfit. Ella had decided to match her height, more or less, and so she had gone for insane platform pumps in red.

Aneka had been quite sure they were enormously under-dressed, until they met up with Gillian. She was wearing something like a sari in cream. The cropped blouse with capped sleeves had delicate, gold embroidery, and there was a similarly decorated scarf which fell from her left shoulder and looped around her right leg. The long skirt which was usually worn with such an outfit was, however, missing. The only thing concealing Gillian’s body below her ribs was the scarf. And everyone else was dressed in similar outfits. Men with muscles wore translucent shirts to show off what was beneath. Slimmer men wore fitted suits which complimented their figure and they tended to be stressing that they had other attributes the women might find appealing. The Dean could be seen threading through the crowds, resplendent in a mesh shirt which showed off a muscled chest. His partner was, indeed, short, blonde, very attractive, and wearing a vacant smile along with an outfit composed of various strategically placed feathers.

The weird thing about it all was the lack of sexual tension. If Aneka had arrived at a party with so much flesh on display in her time she would have assumed she was going to bed with someone. Here it seemed to be a simple case of everyone displaying their best features. She was in a room full of peacocks. If she had to admit it, her own plumage was pretty damn good too.

‘Are you enjoying our little party, Miss Jansen?’
Speaking of plumage…
Aneka turned to see the Dean and, considerably shorter, but with significant presence, his feather-clad partner. Her outfit consisted of an apron of glistening blue-green feathers which covered her privates and two fronds of feathers which cupped the lower slopes of her breasts, barely concealing her nipples. It was hard not to look.

‘It’s… interesting.’

Ajax smiled. ‘This is my partner, Lidila Montana. Lidila, this is Miss Aneka Jansen, our visitor from the past.’

Lidila turned a bright smile on Aneka, and she got a good look at the woman’s eyes. Intelligent, sharp, far brighter than Aneka had expected. ‘This must all be very different from the world you’re used to, Miss Jansen.’

‘Aneka, please. You certainly wouldn’t get away with dresses like these in my time. Not at a gathering like this.’