The Cold Steel Mind by Niall Teasdale Read Free Book Online

neither said a word.
    ~~~
    The door to the cabin opened and Ella walked in, coming to a sudden stop, her mouth dropping open. Aneka was standing in the space between the bunks and the table, dressed in a black, mock-leather corset which narrowed her waist and pushed her substantial breasts upward, a tiny black G-string, and thigh-high, black, stiletto-heeled boots. She was slowly tapping a riding crop against her right thigh and trying to keep a straight face while all she wanted to do was grin.
    ‘Now then,’ Aneka said, ‘tell me again how this is not good seduction-wear.’
    ‘I… take it all back,’ Ella replied, her voice barely making it over a whisper.
    Aneka slapped her leather-clad thigh sharply with the crop. ‘Not good enough! Get that suit off and you can tell me in much greater detail while you’re licking my boots.’
    ‘Oh Vashma,’ Ella breathed as her hands started undoing her suit seal before her mind had caught up with what she was doing.
    Aneka allowed herself a smirk.
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    ‘Doesn’t that thing restrict your breathing?’ Ella asked. The thong had been dispensed with, but Aneka was still encased in corset and boots, and they were lying, happy and satiated on the bottom bunk.
    ‘Yes, but thankfully I don’t need to breathe that much.’
    ‘And people wore those in your time?’ Ella sounded slightly disbelieving.
    ‘Not routinely. A century earlier there was a fashion for hourglass figures and women would wear ridiculously tight corsets all the time. There were cases of fainting and even broken ribs. People will do stupid things for fashion.’
    ‘Tighter than that one?!’
    ‘Much tighter. At least I didn’t need a maid to lever me into this. Modern materials make it a lot easier. This one just contracts to the desired fitting like those jeans I have.’
    ‘I don’t think it’ll catch on.’
    Aneka grunted a laugh. ‘No, sexy to you people is basically nude. It’s like you’ve lost the idea that a bit of mystery helps. You’re so used to everyone being pretty, and everyone being happy with their bodies, that you just display the goods to anyone who wants to look.’ She frowned. ‘And yet you still have bikinis.’
    Ella gave a shrug. ‘I guess a little covering up does make it more exciting when you get to see what’s beneath. It’s different now though. Pretty much everyone is attractive so you have to look at more than the surface to find someone you want to be with. Seeing everything up front doesn’t make that much difference.’
    Aneka gave a soft grunt. ‘Except that’s so much gopi, right? You said yourself that no one wanted to be with you when you were disfigured. If everyone’s beautiful, then no one has to settle for an ugly partner. If they’d got to know you they’d have seen what a gorgeous girl there was under that messed up face, but they just looked at the outside and went off to find a cheerleader.’
    Ella was silent for a while. The Jenlay seemed to dislike having the hypocrisies of their society pointed out, but generally Ella was better about it than most. Finally she said, ‘What’s a cheerleader?’
    Aneka laughed. ‘You’d have made a great one.’
    ~~~
    Aneka floated near the main flight console of the Agroa Gar, her eyes scanning the room slowly and her pistol in her hand. In the engineering section, Bashford was doing something similar, except that he was holding a laser carbine. None of the academics were aboard the ship; they were considered non-combatants. If something went wrong at this stage all Hell could break loose and the last thing they needed was a group of easy targets for some automated defence system. Not that they had found evidence of one, but you never knew with alien technology.
    Aneka had actually suggested that she be alone on the ship. Her hardened chassis could handle a lot more than Bashford, or the two people rigging the final stage of the power cabling, Delta and Monkey. Bashford had looked at her until