Read Online The Winter War by Niall Teasdale - Free Book Online Page B

that time a great gift fell
from Heaven. It was the means to travel among the stars, and even
though the western lands wanted to keep it for themselves, the
People were given the gift too. It became a time of great peace on
Earth because no man needed to fight his neighbour for land or… um,
resources. The People and the inhabitants of greatest of the
western lands sent many ships out among the stars. Grandfather says
that there were several of our ancestors among those who left to go
to colonies on other worlds. Some returned, much richer than when
they left. Others stayed and prospered there.’
    ‘That explains a lot,’ Aneka
said. ‘If China and America were the biggest exporters of people,
then the Chinese ended up creating Rimmic and the Hani script, and
I’ve always thought Federal sounds more like American English.’
    Chan Mei translated what she had
said and the old man laughed and continued his story.
    ‘Grandfather says that he heard
the word “America” used once for the western land. Like “China” it
is a name that has been lost in time. He says the prosperity of the
new age ended when the Demons were discovered. They had attacked
some of our… trading partners and much wealth was put into building
warships. But the Demons were powerful, with terrible weapons. It
is said they were twenty feet tall and men turned to dust just from
looking at them. The war went on for decades, but the Demons
finally came here. They threw fire and huge rocks down from the
heavens. Of those who survived that… torrent, many became sick. The
sky was black as night for a whole year. The crops failed and there
was snow in the summer. Animals and people gave birth to monsters
that lived for only a few minutes before dying, or were stillborn.
The Demons had brought Hell to the Earth… Then, after ten years,
Manu Dei came and made the world well again.’ The old man looked at
Aneka, his eyes narrowing. He said something which Chan Mei
translated as, ‘He says that he saw Manu Dei once, many years ago,
and you look very much like her.’
    ‘She was… a distant relative,’
Aneka replied. ‘I only met her the once.’
    The old man let out a cackling
laugh after hearing the translation and his reply came back as,
‘Now that she is gone he says that he can say that you are better
looking.’
    Aneka laughed. ‘Thank you.’
    ‘And you have a better sense of
humour. He says that Miss Narrows is very beautiful too. She
reminds him of his wife.’ Chan Mei blushed a little and combed a
hand through her hair. ‘I get my hair and a little of my looks from
her.’ The blush deepened as he continued speaking. She looked like
she did not really want to translate, but felt it was her duty. ‘He
says he has always had a thing for the red hair.’
    Ella giggled and Aneka said,
‘Yeah, you just can’t beat a redhead.’
    ~~~
    By the time they got back to their rooms
in the tower, Aneka was getting moderately proficient in Mandarin
and Ella had an extensive collection of oral history stored in her
computer implant’s memory for Gillian to listen to later. Most of
it was fairly uninteresting as far as Aneka was concerned; Chan
Nianzu had been the highlight of the day for her. Ella was rather
more enthusiastic since she was the anthropologist and this kind of
thing was her bread and butter.
    Chan Mei escorted them up to the
top floor. It was mid-afternoon and Gillian and Bashford were not
back yet. Ella stretched as she walked in through the door and
Aneka detected a subtle hint about what her own redhead wanted to
do with the rest of the afternoon. The evening was to be taken up
with a dinner to which a lot of important administrators and
scientists had been invited. Aneka would have rather stayed in
bed.
    ‘If you will need my services
tomorrow,’ Chan Mei said, ‘you need only tell Councillor Wei and I
will be available.’ Something about the way she said it made Aneka
turn to look at her properly. She saw a slight reddening