Read Online Steel Beneath the Skin by Niall Teasdale - Free Book Online

Aneka sat down beside her and Ella’s free hand, the right one was stroking over the man’s forearm, moved immediately to rest on Aneka’s thigh. ‘This is Paul, Paul Norton. We were an item for a couple of years when I first started at the university.’
    ‘Then I got the position on the Argent Sky,’ Norton added. ‘Too big an opportunity to miss.’
    Aneka smiled, trying not to make it look strained, and offered Norton her hand. ‘Paul, pleased to meet you.’ He reached out to shake her hand and then slipped his arm around Ella’s waist. The little nymphomaniac shivered slightly, her smile brightening. The hand on Aneka’s thigh began to stroke gently.
    ‘That’s a very nice… outfit you’ve got there,’ Norton added, though the way his eyes scanned over her suggested he was complimenting what was under the plastic. Ella’s fingers shifted to stroke over Aneka’s inner thigh.
    Could she be any more damn transparent? Aneka took a drink and forced herself to keep the grimace off her face. Doesn’t anything taste right here? ‘Thank you, Paul. I needed something to wear and I don’t need a ship-suit.’
    Norton nodded. ‘Ella’s been telling me all about you. She’s very enthusiastic.’
    Aneka laughed. ‘Always, as far as I can tell.’
    ‘Ha! Yeah, there is that.’
    Ella’s fingers were shifting upward by now and from the way her back was arching Norton’s hand was doing something similar along her spine. The direction this was going seemed obvious, but Aneka was not quite sure she was ready for that level of interaction with future society.
    ‘Paul and the Captain are staying over tonight,’ Ella said. ‘We’ve all got long trips ahead of us. A little R and R seems like a good idea.’ Her fingers arrived at the join of Aneka’s legs, brushed over the thin plastic, pressed a little harder…
    Aneka smiled, knowing that this time it did look strained and not really caring. ‘That’s great. Look, I’m a bit tired and I have that contract to read over. I’ll… leave you to it and I’ll see you in the morning.’ She got to her feet and started for the door. Ella’s expression was a weird mixture of desire, concern and confusion; she really could not understand what was happening, which was just like her.
    ‘I’ll come with you and sort out that document for you,’ Patton said, rising from her seat beside Drake and following. ‘We’ll need to set you up a witnessed signature anyway.’ It sounded suspiciously like an excuse; her body language had been a little tight and she probably wanted out of the room too. When they were out of the mess she added, ‘We can use the terminal in my room.’
    Patton’s room looked like one which rarely got used. It was too neat for one thing, and the bed was pristine. The owner of the room went straight to her desk, signed in, and began running software. The “signature” was electronic, a key pair generated by the ship’s computer. The public and private keys were dumped off into files with the private one filed away for Aneka’s eyes only. Patton attached her own signature to the public key file to verify that Aneka was who she said she was, and then filed it with the ship’s computer.
    ‘They’ll take the encrypted registration file back to New Earth with them,’ Patton explained as she tapped her way through the computer’s file system. ‘It gets registered there with Federal Administration and you’ll officially exist. Normally the private key is then implanted into our idents, but you can probably just store it in your computer for now. Don’t forget to secure-delete it from the ship’s computer afterward. Oh, I’ve marked your home location as the university. I doubt anyone will be messaging you, but if they do the messages will be held there until you can pick them up.’ She tapped a few keys and a new window appeared. ‘And this is the contract they want you to look over. I’m going to take a shower. You read it through,