Aneka Jansen 7: Hope Read Online Free PDF

ancient history. Despite worries that the Pinnacle would return to try again after Old Earth re-joined the galactic community, no one had seen anything of them.
    There had been rumours and mutterings. People spoke of a vast empire run off the backs of slaves taken from every Human subspecies. Given that the metalwork around Ella’s neck had been described as a slave collar, she was having to give more credence to the stories than she had previously allowed.
    Some of them seemed extreme, maybe a little inflated to make the menace in the dark seem worse than it was. There were several stories of huge raids where entire settlements were attacked, rounded up and transported away into slavery. Some said the Pinnacle would destroy an entire planet where the population defied them. A couple of history students had attempted to verify a few of the stories, but they always hit the same wall: everything happened in some far-off place which made it difficult, if not impossible, to check the facts.
    Almost as if the interrogator knew she was distracting herself from the tedium, the door opened and he walked in. Ella heard the screaming again; whoever the gunner was who had messed up, he was certainly paying for it.
    ‘I wish to establish the stakes in our game,’ he said without preamble. ‘This way you will know why it is important to you to tell me what I want to know.’
    ‘What? I don’t–’ And then she began screaming.
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    Ella sat on her bed, curled into a ball in the corner, as far from the door as she could get. It was a small gesture, and useless, but it made her feel a tiny bit safer.
    The man had released her from the restraints when he had finished asking her useless questions, being unsatisfied with her answers, and activating the collar. It meant she could move, though there was nowhere to go. It meant she could also take in the fairly basic, short, grey tank dress she had been put in. There was no footwear. She could feel, but not see, the collar. It was made of curved strips of metal which seemed to have been moulded around her neck, and it felt as though it was quite ornate. There were even smooth areas which might have been jewels of some sort. She got the impression that the Pinnacle did not want their slaves spoiling the view with ugly indications of their status.
    She had been given food. Not bad food, actually. A stew of some sort and likely rehydrated before heating through, but it had filled her stomach. She had thought herself incapable of eating until the stuff had been in her mouth and she had realised how hungry she was. And the food had been delivered by a different man who had not said a word to her. He had been younger, but his uniform was identical to the older one. The Pinnacle, it seemed, were not big on rank insignia so there was no obvious way of determining relative seniority.
    The door opened and Ella pulled herself into a tighter ball. It was her interrogator again.
    ‘Our medical technician remarked upon your durability,’ he said. He was really not fond of introductory statements. ‘How did you survive the explosion? You should have died. There should have been broken bones, internal damage…’
    ‘Over-protective girlfriend,’ Ella replied. She watched as he took his hand from his pocket, the control for the collar in it. ‘Seriously! She’s spent thirty years worrying over me getting killed in one of the stupid situations we keep finding ourselves in. My bones have been reinforced with carbon nanofibres. There’s a lattice of nanotubes around my heart that contract with the muscles and keep it pumping. I’ve got nanomachines floating around in just about every cell doing one thing or another. My lungs filter gasses and particulates from the atmosphere. Huh, I used to be able to get drunk on one glass of wine and now I can drink like a fish and I never get a hangover.’
    ‘We detected extensive cybernetics. Your eyes are entirely artificial.’
    ‘Oh, those went