A Story of Humanity: The Jess and Dev Tales Fiction Page
Part of AUSXIP The Bard's Corner
Written by Melissa Good

STORIES  |  SHORT STORIES  |  ARTWORK |  MISSY GOOD'S XENA FANFIC

 

Partners

Part 5

They were the last ship back.   Dev held the carrier, limping in on one engine, steady as she watched the recovered vessel with it’s four passengers and the two that had gone with them sink through the wide opening into the landing bay.

It was still raining.  But it was a steady unrelenting drizzle and the winds had died down, allowing Dev to relax as she waited.  

Jess was in her seat, tapping furiously on her consoles and pad, occasionally chuckling to herself.   She seemed to be in a very good mood, and Dev cautiously evaluated the idea that she’d done okay in their mission.

Her first one.  She had, at least, brought them both back in one piece if the carrier wasn’t, and since they’d gotten the other teams back, she figured the whole thing might have been something of a success.

Not too bad, for someone who had only driven a sim before now.  Dev glanced at her reflection in the curved forward shield,  noting her sweat dampened hair.  She raked it back and settled her hands on the controls again, the feeling of the throttles against her palms starting to become comfortably familiar.

She moved the carrier forward, tilting the nose down a little with a boost on the landing jets to give her a good view of the bay.  She could see clear airspace and she leveled the craft, then increased the lower jets and cut off her main engines.

The carrier drifted downward,  clearing the bay opening and settling lower and lower into the vast cavern.   “BR27006” She spoke softly into the comms  “Requesting landing pad.”

The comm crackled immediately. “BR27006,  landing pad 82 cleared for your approach.”

Dev located the spot, marked with big, easily read numbers and she adjusted the side jets to move them over, hovering above the numbers before she cut power to the landing jets and they settled slowly into place.

There was a team waiting. She recognized a group of Ceebees, in pale orange jumpsuits with kits and hoses in their hands and as soon as she cut power to the drive systems, they bolted forward towards the carrier.

Two sprayed the outside down with something. “What is that?”

“Sealant.”  Jess said, still slouched in her seat.  “In case we popped a line. Don’t want to blast anyone with anything.”   She now had her hands folded over her stomach and was just relaxing.   “When they make the hookup, send the logs and the flight recorder detail over to storage.”

Dev nodded. “Yes.” She had been waiting, in fact, for specifically that.  She saw a light come on midway up the console, and ran her fingers over the keys, accepting the connection and setting up the synch. 

Another light, and she shut down internal power, and they went into pitch darkness for a few seconds before the external connection kicked in and the lights came back on, along with internal ventilation now being supplied from the dock.

It felt good, the air was cool and fresh and not full of half baked sealant.  Dev blinked a little, and unbuckled her harness as she turned her seat around and watched the webbing retract.

“So.” Jess regarded her.  “NM-Dev-1, you can pilot a carrier.”

“Yes.” Dev smiled. “Apparently so.”

“Where’d you pick up all the upside down stuff?” Jess asked. “I’m betting the other side’s never seen one of these do that before cause I sure haven’t.”

Upside down?  Dev frowned a little, and her head tilted to one side. “You mean this?” She lifted one hand and tilted it back and forth.

“I mean when you were flying with the bottom of this thing pointed skyward.” Jess explained.

“Oh.”  Dev nodded. “In space… “She pointed upward. “In the crèche, you get to train in a null grav sim for some of this. It’s all.. um.” She considered. “There’s no right or wrong side up.  You learn in all dimensions.”

Jess studied her face intently for a long moment. “Interesting.” She said, finally.   “Well, I’ll tell you what, Dev.  You did as well or better as anyone I’ve ever seen driving this bus. “

“Are you surprised?”

“Yes.” Jess nodded.

“Me too.” Dev replied, with an almost impish grin.  “Sims are one thing, but real is different.  This was very difficult.”  She said. “Mostly because I didn’t have any programming on what to do. They don’t give you programs to know what to do when you are flying at a mountain with twenty planes chasing you and shooting at you.”

“Ah.” Jess murmured. “So you just did that on instinct.”

Dev considered that carefully.  “I’m not sure what that means.”

“You didn’t think about what to do.” Jess clarified. “You just reacted. You just did it.”

Dev considered again, then nodded. She half turned as the comm crackled, reaching over to accept a key.

“BR27006, you are cleared for exit.  Systems stable, please release locks and proceed to debrief.”  A stolid male voice intoned.   “Agent Drake,  Mr Bain’s compliments.”

“Hah.” Jess stood up and stretched. “C’mon. Let’s get the brain hosing out of the way and go get a drink. We earned it.” She waved Dev forward, and keyed the hatch, waiting a moment as it unsealed and popped outward, swinging clear to let them out of the craft. 

She stepped out and down to the ground, as two bio alt techs edged past her, carrying toolkits.   She waited for Dev to follow her, not missing the looks of the other bio alts as she left the carrier past them.

Mixture of envy and awe.  Jess was intrigued, but she put it aside as she turned to regard her craft.  Always a little battered by weather and battle, this time it looked like the carrier had been driven right through that big storm front and then right into the side of the mountain they were currently standing inside.  “Shitcakes.”

Dev turned and looked, her eyes getting big and round. “Wow.”

Every inch of the craft was scored by fire, it’s outside a dark and creased dappled gray.  One of the external engine pods was sliced through, dripping lurid green fluid on the ground.  There was a huge rent right along the side, it’s end just shy of the curve of the nose where Dev had been seated.

A man came up next to Jess, dressed in a deep orange suit. “Holy shit, Drake. What the hell did you do to that thing?”

Jess glanced at him, bemused. “You should see what the other guy looks like.” She said. “Sorry, Clint.  Looks like a total overhaul.”

The man snorted, then seemed to notice Dev for the first time. “Who’s this?”

“This is Dev.”  Jess supplied. “She’s my p.. pilot.”  She felt her tongue stutter, and felt a pang.   “Wait till you see the logs.”

Clint was regarding Dev thoughtfully. “Oh, yeah. I heard about that.” He said. “Nice to meet you.” He extended a hand.  “Hope you don’t do this everytime. Too much work.”

Dev politely shook his hand. “I’ll try not to.” She said. “They’re very sturdy pieces of equipment.”

Clint beamed.

Jess sighed. “The way to his heart is through a hydraulic tube c’mon.” She touched Dev’s sleeve. “They’re waiting for us in debrief.”

They walked along the marked floor, as techs and support people swarmed around them, and the other three carriers who had just come in.   The rest of the crews had already gone down the tunnel, so Jess wasted no more time and turned off the rocky floor into a tall, scan equipped deep blue hallway.

She felt the tickle as she passed through, and saw Dev blink a little. “You feel that?”

Dev looked at her. “Yes. The scan, you mean?”

“Yeah.” Jess nodded. “That’s all security.  You have to be coded to go through. If you’re not, you get enough of a blast to take you out when you’re inside. Some places, like central command, you get more than that.”

“Oh.”

“I”ll show you the grid when we get back to quarters. We’re coded everywhere, but not everyone is. Good to know if you’re walking with someone outside ops.”

“I see.”

Jess led the way towards a closed automatic door, and put her hand on the pad outside it.  “Drake, J, and NM-Dev-1 for debrief.”

The pad glowed, then the door opened, and they went in.   “Gotta show you the rec, and your rad area too.” Jess commented, as they went through another door and into a larger room, this one half full of people.  “But we’ll get a drink first.”

Dev was content to follow along, listening to Jess’s ramblings.  She considered them, cautiously optimistic that they seemed to be trending towards a tendency to let her stay, at least for a little while. 

She recognized Stephen Bock in the room, and the four agents they’d gone with, and four people she didn’t know, along with the man with the gun, Bain.   She stopped as Jess did, and she watched Jess spread her arms out as they all started making noises at her.

Very strange.  But Jess looked pleased, so she supposed it was all right.  She followed Jess over to two open chairs and they sat down next to each other.   She looked over at the man wit the gun, surprised to find him smiling at her.

She smiled back.

“Well.”  Bain leaned back.  “Welcome back, you four.” He looked at the four people Dev didin’t know. “None the worse for wear I see.”

“Was a little tough sir.”  Sandy Tucker responded. “Me and Roger tried to make our own diversion with our boat, but they didn’t buy it.  We thought we were going to have to try and climb out when all of a sudden they all took  off.”

‘Right.” Jason said. “By the time we crested over the ridge just east of them, Jess, the guards all hauled ass and it was easy peasy getting to them and getting out. They didn’t even leave a comms watch.” He glanced at Dev then back at Jess. “What the hell did you do to draw them off?”

‘We can roll the flight recorder.” Jess said. “Faster that way than for me to tell it.”  She eyed Sandy. “I guess you know I blew your boat up.”

Sandy nodded. “Jase said.” She looked at the tall, very muscular man next to her. “Mike figured that might happen.  We didn’t really have any way of broadcasting it wasn’t rigged, or that you’d believe it if we did.”

The tall man grunted. “Fuckers. They knew we were coming , Jess.” He looked across the table. “We came in polar, and we just cleared Gibralter and they were on us. Chased us to the ridge and we got under cover – blasted the ones who had the guts to come at us, but we were stuck there.”

“Saw you on scan.” Jason said.  “It was a bad plan to start with.”

Both Mike and Sandy looked uncomfortable.  “Well, you made your view clear.” Mike said, stiffly.

Bain had been watching and listening, and now he cleared his throat. “He was right.” He said, in a mild tone.  “It was a damn fool idea, and now we had to put three teams at risk just to get us back to square one.”

Mike looked sullenly at him.

“What about you?” Sandy suddenly asked, looking at Jess. “I thought you were out.  Didn’t you stand on your pride about that?” She pointed at Dev.  “Now you’re here? It’s here? What’s the deal?”

Bain cleared his throat again. “Agent Drake was thoughtful enough to agree to my request that she remain with us.”  He said.  “I’m quite gratified. “ He looked at Jess. “And how is the experiment going, Agent Drake?”

Jess remained expressionless. “I’ll let the flight recorder speak for itself.” She remarked. “But I’ll be more than glad to continue with it.”  She folded her hands on the table.   “I like the results so far.”

Dev’s ears perked.  That sounded like a positive thing, since she strongly suspected she was the experiment in question.

“Hmm. Indeed.”  Bain’s eyes twinkled a little.  “Then by all means, let’s see this recorder.”  He nodded at Stephen, who was sitting in silence, just watching everyone. “Mr. Bock. Please proceed.”

Stephen got up and went to the console, triggering the big display in the back of the room. The panels slid open, and he adjusted the room lights, then keyed in the recording that Dev had sent from the carrier. “Here we go, sir.”

He sat down as the scene recorder rolled, presenting a view from all the carrier’s sensors overlayed to produce an almost three dimensional presentation.   One one corner was a mission clock, and on the other a base readout of the carrier’s systems.

They heard Dev’s voice quietly asking for flight access, then the recorder started forward.

“Go to time lock 1140 loc if you want to see the other carrier blown out.” Jess said. “And 1150 loc if you want to see the exciting stuff.”

Bock looked at  Bain, who nodded. He got up and keyed in the change, and suddenly the carrier was accelerating towards the hulk of Gibralter and the defender’s beacons flared. 

It didn’t really take that long. Dev was a little surprised at how fast it all went once it started. When she’d been doing it, it seemed a lot longer.   She relived the dives and rolls, nodding a little as the carrier  wove it’s way through the enemy, rolling over and over as it darted between defenders and through arcs of fire.

“Holy shit.”  Sandy said, after a few minutes utter silence.

Jess sat back in her seat and smiled. She could see Bain’s face, and even his craggy old eyes were wide and astonished, as they blasted past Gibralter and she laid a line of fire inside their control center.   Then they were past, and she could feel her heart start accelerating as she relived their one team attack on the heavily defended science center.

“Oh my go… whoa!”  Jason yelped, as the carrier dove for the waves.

Diving, diving, the alarms going off, redlining the carrier with all that evident on the screen as they pulled out and into that damn rolling wave at the very last minute, the enemy behind them splashing into the water unable to stop.

Wild.

Then she sat back, remembering the incredible pull of gravity on her body and the ache still in her arms as she kept firing, all the way up the escarpment and over the top into the clouds in one long, screaming, rumbling run that ended in gray silence and the bleeting of overworked systems.

“Holy shit.” Sandy said, again.

“That’s about it.” Jess said, in as normal a voice as she could muster. “The rest you know.”

The lights came up a little as Stephen cut the replay off, and they all turned around and stared at the two women seated at the end of the table.

Even Bain, his customary dismissive, offhand façade dropped like a rock off the cliff, his jaw hanging slightly open.

Jess smiled briefly.  “Can we get the one by ones done? I owe my pilot here a drink.” She jerked her head in Dev’s direction. “And as a matter of fact, I think you all do too.”

Dev was absolutely not sure what response would be appropriate, so she decided not to have any at all. She remained silent, her hands folded on the table, a mild look on her face as the rest of the group stared at her.

“Not bad for her first flight, huh?”  Jess finally said.

Bain relaxed into his seat, and exhaled. “Indeed.”  He commented. “Been a very educational day.”

Dev was content to stick to Jess’s side as they all entered a wide, low room with comfortable looking chairs.  She took a seat next to Jess  as she listened to the rest of them chatter, glad to be able to participate in what was evidently a positive experience.

The other agents and techs ignored her.  That was all right, from her perspective.  She was satisfied that Jess and the man with the gun were happy with her and she was looking forward to the moment when she could go and get in the wet thing and maybe have a chance to read a page or two of her book.

She wondered if she could find Doctor Dan, and ask him what he thought about the mission.  She knew a lot of the programming she’d been given was his, and she was curious if it had turned out as he’d expected.

“Dev?”

Dev looked up. “Yes?”   She reached up in reflex and took the glass she was being handed, her eyes darting to Jess’s face in question.  “Thank you.”

“You ever had booze?”  Jess inquired as she watched her sip at the contents.

Dev blinked and moved the glass away. The drink was a very strange mixture of fruits and something that fizzed and something else that burned as she swallowed.  “If that’s what this is, then definitely not.”

Jess chuckled. 

“So, how far are you going to take this?” Sandy asked, indicating Dev.  “Obviously you’re sucking up to Bain but for how long?”

“Are you really that much of an asshole?”  Jess responded. 

“Takes one to know one.” Sandy shrugged.

“Then I’m going to take this all the way.” Jess steadily met her gaze. “Dev can go as far as she’s able in this place as far as I’m concerned.” She leaned back in her chair and extended her long legs out. “And at least I’m not sucking up to someone who got his brains blown out for being a moron like you were.”

“Hey c’mon.”  Jason gave them both a look. “We just had a successful mission here.  Let’s not act like jerks.”

“That was Bricker’s idea!” Mike pointed at Dev.

“She.”  Jess corrected him. “Was Bricker’s idea.  But no one here can say why.”  She took a swallow of her drink.  “Bain’s reason for wanting her here might be a whole other thing.”

“Bricker just didn’t buy into your bullshit mystique.”  Sandy was unrepentant.  “At least I don’t pretend to like you, Jess, or kiss your ass for any reason unlike everyone else apparently.”

Dev was listening, her head swiveling to regard each speaker. At this last, she turned and looked at Jess, then scanning down her long form to her seat, then back up to her face. Her brow creased in confusion.  “You have a lot of unusual customs.” She commented mildly.  “Programming definitely didn’t cover that one.”

Jess started laughing, and Jason did too, and after a long, frozen moment the rest of them reluctantly started to chuckle.

“Shit, it.. “  Mike caught Jess’s sharp eye.  “She’s got a sense of fucking humor. “ He grudgingly conceded.

“Look.” Jess said. “She’s a one off.  Just go with the program.”   She leaned her arm on the chair arm next to Dev’s.  “So much shit’s going down right now who knows how it’s all going to end up. “

“One off?”  Mike asked warily.

“I’m an experimental set.” Dev spoke directly to him.  “I don’t have crèche mates.”

All of the agents in the group seemed to relax just a little. 

“There isn’t a dozen of her back there waiting to take over.” Jess clarified.  “So chill out.  Go yell at Bain if you want to for her being here. It’s not her fault.”

Dev took a drink from her glass.  She was not at all sure if she liked it, but everyone else seemed to so she was willing to give it a try. 

It was very strange and a little difficult being here with all the other people. 

The outer door opened and Stephen Bock came in. He stopped to grab a drink from the tray that had been set up near the grouping of chairs they were in, and sat down in an empty one.  “So.” He looked at them. “You all done sniping at Jess and being rude to her tech?”

“Fuck you Stephen.”  Sandy said. 

‘You want to be put on report for that?” Stephen asked.  “I had to put up with your attitude when I was an agent, Sandra.  I don’t have to now.”

“You don’t have the balls.”

“I do.” Stephen clicked his commset. “Please send a recorder down here from ops.”  He said. “I have a disciplinary action to execute.”

Sandy stared at him. “You bastard.”

“Guess it’s different now that your sugar daddy got his head blown off, huh?”  Jason produced a brief smile.  “We all know that wasn’t his ass you were kissing.”

“You all can go to hell.” Sandy got up, and her partner Todd did too. He hadn’t said a word the entire time they’d been in the room, and followed her in equal silence as she left the lounge.

“We’re going to go get cleaned up.” Mike also stood.  “C’mon Nappy.”  He glanced at Jess. “Thanks, Jess.  All bullshit aside.” He extended his big, muscled hand. “You put it out there for us.”

Jess returned the clasp, then released it. “Anytime.”

“Anyway.” Stephen looked tired.  He looked over at Jess, who was sitting next to him. “Bain wants to see you in a bout an hour.” He said.  “We’ve gotten some interesting intelligence he want to review with you.”

Jess nodded. “I’m going to go grab some grub then.” She stood up. “Interested, Dev?”

“Yes.” Dev responded immediately. “That would be nice.” She put her cup down on the tray and stepped aside, as Jess came around her chair and headed for the door.

“We’ll go too.”  Jason stood up. “Been a long time since breakfast.  Stephen? You up for chow? Been a damn long day.”

They walked together through the hallways towards the dining hall, as Stephen came along with them.   Dev  stuck close to Jess, but then, out of the corner of her eye she saw Doctor Dan come out of a doorway and spot her.

His eyes lit up. He crossed the hallway and intercepted them, the group slowing as he approached and watching him warily.  “Congratulations.” He nodded at them, then turned to Dev.  “Excuse us.” 

The group moved on, leaving them behind.   Dev did however, catch Jess looking back at her, the tall woman’s eyebrows slightly lifted. “I’ll be right there.” She said, with a little half wave.

Jess waved back, and pointed at the dining hall then ducked inside.

Dev turned back around. “Hello, Doctor Dan.”

“Hello, Dev.” Doctor Dan leaned forward and gave her a hug. “I just wanted to take a minute to congratulate you for your work today.”

Dev smiled.  “It was difficult.”

“I just bet it was.” Doctor Dan chuckled. “I saw the recorder.  You did an amazing job for your first flight.”  He put both hands on her shoulders.  “Really good, Dev.  Everyone thinks so.”

Dev glanced at the now dissappeeard group. “I don’t’ think everyone does, Doctor Dan, but the person I was the pilot for was very pleased with me, I believe.”

Doctor Dan’s gray eyes warmed as he looked at her. “Jess is very pleased with you.” He said. “And she’s got a good reason to be.  You achieved a very significant thing together.”  He glanced casually around, but they were alone in the hall. “I’ll be going back to the crèche tomorrow, Dev.”

“I won’t be?”  Dev felt a little, excited thump in her chest. 

“No, you’re staying here.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Do your best.” He told her. “You can trust Jess Drake, and you can trust Alex Bain.”

Dev nodded.  “You trust them.”

“I would trust Alex with my life, and have.”  Doctor Dan said, in a serious tone. “And you can too, but you can also trust Jess, and I hope she comes to trust you.”

Dev hesitated, then she nodded again.  “I hope she does.”  She said. “I want to do good work for her.” She watched Doctor Dan’s face, as he smiled gently.  “People here sometimes aren’t nice.”

“I know.”  Doctor Dan.  “Be strong, Dev.  In the end, people who try to hurt people like you, end up only hurting themselves. “ He let his hands drop. “I have sent you my personal comms link to your quarters. Use it if you need to. If you just want to talk or tell me something, do it.”

Dev smiled. “I will.” She said. “Thank you for everything, Doctor Dan. I’ll do my best here.”

“I know you will.” Doctor Dan gave her another hug. “Go get some food.  Is that okay for you  so far?”

“It’s fine.” Dev said. “Will you come eat with us?”

He shook his head. “I think I will make your new colleagues very uncomfortable.” He patted her back. “I’ll be by to say goodbye before I leave.  Go on now.”

Dev clasped his hand and released it, then she turned and headed for the dining hall, pausing as the scan picked up her badge and opened the door as she approached.  

Once it closed, she took a breath and released it. 

Then she looked around and spotted Jess, who was standing in the line.   She quickly went over to join her, coming to stand next to her in front of the food dispenser.

“Your buddy give you a pat on the back?”  Jess asked.

“Doctor Dan?  Yes. He’s going home tomorrow.” Dev replied. “He wanted to tell me that, and compliment me on my work.”

Jess punched in two sets of codes. “So he was saying goodbye?”

“Something like that, yes.” Dev smiled briefly.  “So I suppose I’m staying.”

“Oh yeah, you’re staying.”  Jess pushed a tray at her. “Later on I’ll show you around the place the right way.”   She picked up the tray and headed for a large table where the others were sitting.   She took a seat and Dev took one beside her. 

‘Lot of people coming in.”  Jason said, glancing around. “All the prep people for the new class.”  He forked up some of his fish.  “Thought for a few days they’d cancel it.”

“Yeah.” Elaine agreed. “Brent, don’t you know one of the newbies?” She looked at the tech, a man of middling height and very black hair.   “I thought you said you did”

Brent nodded. “Cousin of mine.” He admitted.  “I tried to talk him out of it but the jackass didn’t listen.”

Dev listened politely, as she chewed. The tray held some different things than last time, a crispy cake she liked very much,  some chewy protein she guessed was probably fish, and some things in hard shells, which tasted salty.

“So. Um. Dev.”

Dev swallowed and looked up at Elaine, with a start of surprise. “Yes?”

The agent leaned against the table. “I’ve always wanted to ask this. What the hell is the collar for?”

“Oh.”  Dev put her fork down. “It’s a programming interface.” She said.  “It gets installed right after you mostly finish growing, when you start to get skills.”

“Ah huh.” Elaine said. “So, it’s a plug?”

“Not really.” Dev unsealed the neck of her suit and peeled it down low enough to expose the collar. “There are leads that the programming system connects to but then there are leads go up through the back of your neck here..” She touched the back of her head.  “And into your cortex.”

“They put wires in your brain?”  Elaine said, after a pause.

“Yes.” Dev agreed. “It’s how they give us programs.”

“How do they do that?” Jason asked, curiously. 

“I don’t know. I’m not a programmer.”  Dev smiled briefly.  “It’s a special skill, not many natural born can do it. “

“Natural born.” Jess looked at her. “Is that what you call us?”

“Yes.” 

“Weird.” Jason shook his head.

They all went back to eating. Dev closed the collar on her suit and took a sip of the pale fizzy drink, which she was getting to like, and she felt okay about getting the questions since at least they were asking and not just talking at her like they were before.

Good sign, she supposed. 

“What do you suppose Bain wants?” Jason asked Jess.  “That guy scares me. Don’t care who knows it.”

Jess shrugged. “Can’t be too bad. We all made it.” She said. “Besides, one of the things I noticed going in was that we surprised them.”

Elaine was nodding, her mouth full.

“Felt like that to us too.” Jason said.   “I expected we’d get ambushed… hell, I told Elaine we were probably flying into a net coming around the side of that ridge they were hiding under but it took them time to react and I figured they didn’t know we were coming. “

“Which is strange.” Elaine said. “Because you know we don’t usually leave our kind there in their clutches.  If it had been me, I’d have expected us.”

Jess grunted. “Point.”

“Yeah.”  Jason frowned.  “Hell, though, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the ass.”

Dev made a mental note to access her pad when she got back to her quarters and start looking up some of the odd verbal utterances she’d heard so far from Jess and her other colleagues.   She’d heard that thing about the horse twice now, so she figured it had to mean something pretty important,

“So who else is coming in the class?” Elaine asked.  “Twelve for us and?” She looked at Jess. “Any idea?”

Jess scraped the last of the fish from her plate.  “Repair chiefs, some security, and from what I hear, a dozen of the biological guys for downstairs.”

“Huh.”

“There are some pilots and mechanics coming from the crèche.” Dev offered. “They were staging them when I left.” She added. “They were talking about new vehicles.”

“Ah.” Jason was listening to her. “Finally! They’ve been rebuilding those carriers since I was a baby.”

“Last year?” Elaine elbowed him.  

“Shut up.” Jason elbowed her back.

“Good to see a new bus if it’s true.” Brent allowed. “So many things are falling off mine I was afraid I’d tank someone on the deck when we took off.”

“Yeah, if they give them to us, not the newbies.” Tucker spoke up for the first time.  “Member what they said the last time, that they had to get the good stuff cause they didn’t know better. We could handle all the crap.”

“Well.” Jess rested her elbows on the table and cradled her mug in her hands. “Anyone tries to pull that bullshit line on me I just point them at her.” She pointed at Dev.  “They didn’t come any newer than she did this morning.”

Tucker and Brent gave Dev a grudging nod.    “Yeah that’s true I guess.” Tucker said. “Sides what your rig looked like when you got back I figure they’d got to build it up from base steel anyhow.”

They finished lunch and filtered out the door, most heading for the residential quarters on the next ring of hallways outward.   Dev walked quietly along at Jess’s side, as it got quieter and quieter when the two other teams peeled off to their rooms.

Jess and Dev’s quarters were, Dev realized, at the end of the half ring hall.  Right across from them was the entrance to the ops center,  it’s outline grid a sedate blue unlike the raw red of the previous day.

She  paused as she went past Jess’s door towards her own, to absorb the idea that this place was, now, for her, a home.

For now long? She didn’t know. But she had passed the first test of this new assignment and earned herself a continued presence with the possibility of a longer term stay.

“Hey, Dev?”

Dev turned, to find Jess in her doorway. “Yes?”

“Change then come over.  I want you to come see Bain with me.”

Ah. Hm. The man with the gun. “Okay.” Dev agreed.

Jess came over and leaned against the wall, folding her arms across her chest. “Don’t let the jackassery get to you.”

Dev looked at her, blinking a few times.   “Is that… supposed to refer to the rude attitude?”

Jess nodded.  “We’re all pretty hard on each other.  Sandy and I never got along.”

“No problem.” Dev said.

“Does it bother you?” Jess asked, in a quiet tone.

“Does it bother you?” Dev returned the question.

The tall, dark haired woman studied her in silence for a long moment.  “Hmp.” She finally grunted. “Damn good question.” She turned and headed back to her door.  “Very damn good question.”

Dev waited until the door closed, then she turned and went to her own quarters, scanning through and letting the heavy panel slid shut behind her.  She stopped and looked around, taking in the room with a fresh set of eyes.

On the workspace, there was a packet, and some covered pads, delivered when she was on the mission, apparently.   So this, for now, was home.  She bypassed the table and headed for the sanitary space, already looking forward to the wet thing, and fresh clothes, and the tour Jess had promised her for later.

Today had, after all, turned out to be a really, really, really good day.

** 

Dev looked up as she heard a buzz at the door.  She got up and went to it, triggering the latch and stepped back as the door slid open and Jess entered. She was dressed in one of the more casual jumpsuits, with fewer pockets and softer fabric.

Dev had realized that there were a few different kinds of garb. One was this type,  and she was wearing the same now too, and another was the kind she  had worn to pilot the carrier which was a heavier fabric, with clips and embedded links for the carrier’s systems to plug into.

She liked the lighter one.  It was very comfortable. She’d made a note to ask Jess about the sleeping clothes though.  “Hello.”

“Ready?” Jess’s eyes swept briefly over the interior.  She spotted the packet on the workspace and walked over to it. “You open this?”

“No.” Dev said. “I didn’t know what it was.”

Jess worked the clamp and opened the padded envelope.  “C’mere.” She shook out the contents into her hand then turned as Dev approached.   “Last bit of archaic crap we use.” She reached up and took hold of Dev’s jumpsuit collar.

Dev stood stock still, not really sure what was going on.  She could feel the warmth of Jess’s fingers against her skin , though, and she decided it felt nice.

“There.” Jess let her hands fall, producing a brief smile as Dev gave her a questioning look. “It’s like the one I have.” She touched the insignia on her collar. “Except the bottom enamel strips are green instead of black.”

“Oh.” Dev reached up to feel the item now fastened to her suit.  “Thank you.”

“It doesn’t mean anything except that you’re one of us.” Jess said.  “I guess when we coded you in as ops tech, it triggered the whole process so that included this.” She picked up a few other items that had dropped out of the packet. “This is your chit card.”

Dev studied it. “Okay.”

“When you go on missions, you get credits.” Jess explained. “You can take this and go to the exchange, and trade the credits for stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Stuff. You know, like…” Jess paused. “Well, I guess you probably don’t know.  Nevermind, I’ll take you there and show you. It’s easier than explaining.”

“Okay.” Dev replied amiably. 

“You can also use it at dinner for drinks or extras, which I’ll show you today too.”  Jess concluded. “And this pad template – you can specify what you want in here and supply will take care of it for you. Like something other than crackers for the dispenser or a different temperature profile.”

“Okay.”  Dev said.

“You can put the card in your ident pack.”  Jess said. “Okay? So let’s go talk to Bain. I want to get your status clarified before I have to go and have back alley fights with everyone I work with.” She turned and led the way to the door.

What did that mean? Dev wondered.   She followed Jess through the hallways, passing the ops center and continuing around the curve into a gray shaded hallway she hadn’t been in yet.   This one had two scans, which she felt as an itchy tingle as they went through.

At the end of the hallway was a shielded door, guarded by two big security officers.  They regarded her and Jess as they approached, and only at the very end did they move aside and key the door open.

Jess ignored them.  “Thank you.” Dev murmured as she went by, seeing a pair of pale blue eyes half hidden in a blast helmet regarding her before the man turned and face forward again.

They walked into a small outer office, and the door behind them closed.  Jess stood quietly before the inner door, looking around a little as a soft sets of bings and clicks sounded, then the inner door opened.

“Ah.” Bain was seated behind a big desk, watching as they entered. “ Right on time, Drake. And I see you brought your charming companion with you.” He got up and came around the desk, extended his hand to Dev. “Hello, my dear.  You are very welcome to this meeting.”

Dev politely shook his hand. “Thank you, sir.”

“You did some excellent work.” Bain told her.  “Extraordinary, for your first flight, hm?

“I did the best I could.” Dev smiled. “I’m very glad it all worked out correctly.”

“Yes.”  Bain went back behind the desk and gestured for them to sit down in the two chairs in front of it.  “Well, Drake, looks like your plan succeeded.” He steepled his fingers. “Hm?  All of you returned and I’ve gotten some intelligence here that indicates you left some.. hm… consternation shall we say behind you?” He pushed a folder across the desk.

Jess took it, and flipped through the plastic like sheets inside.  “Ah.” She grunted. “So that’s what that ledge was.”

“Hm. Yes.”  Bain nodded. “Plasma station. Took out quite a quarter of the mountain face when it exploded.  I daresay you left your mark.”

Wow.  Jess sounded the word silently in her head.  She selected a grainy picture and passed it to Dev. “Big boom.”

Dev studied the picture.  For a moment, it was a blank, then suddenly the memory flashes popped in, and she recalled the high speed dive past the cliff. She tried to tie in that memory with the picture, which showed a huge hole where the ledge had been.

“Well done.” Bain said. “I would guess you’ve set them back quite a bit, Drake. Sure you ddin’t make any more friends on that side though.”

“Mm.”  Jess gruned.  “Wasn’t the lab they had the new growth experiment in though.”

“Ah, no.”  Bain agreed. “That’s what I wanted to discuss with you.  That needs to be addressed. I want you to do it.” 

Jess closed the folder.  “Two days ago I wasn’t even cleared for active duty.” She said. “One day ago I was being processed out.”

“And?” Bain cocked his head at her.

“There’s probably a better choice than me to take on a new mission.”

“I disagree.” Bain shook his head. “I realize you were involved in several very stressful incidents, but given the resources we have right now, I cannot recommend another in your place.” He watched her expression. “Besides,  your wish to leave us was all based around the presence of your new associate here, and I believe you have, as they say, gotten over that.”

Jess pondered this.  “Yeah, now both her and I are taking crap from every direction because of it.”

“Indeed?”

“Indeed.”  Jess said.  “This started off as a hair brained scheme by Bricker.   Everyone knew it.   Now everyone needs to know what the deal is.”

“Hm.”  Bain tapped his fingertips against his lips.  “My view is, yes, it was a hair brained scheme that unlikely as it was, worked.”  He said. “The people up at LifeSource took him seriously, and gave our friend here what skills they could in so short a time, and this morning it was amply demonstrated  that their cobbled together effort performed as well as any of our training programs could.”

“That’s true.” Jess agreed.

“Hm. Well then.” Bain “I have decided to inform everyone that Bricker was making that request on my orders.” He said. “I never mind taking credit for someone elses insane ideas so long as they prove out, hm?”

“I see.”  Jess said, slowly.

‘So then this becomes my idea, and my plan.”  Bain gave Dev a s mile. “Since it has already proven to be a success. We will instruct LIfeSource to continue on developing this program, and will hopefully be able to use it’s results in the future.”

Dev shifted a little. “Excuse me, sir.” She said. “Is it really a good idea to presume success based on so limited an evidence?”

Both Jess and Bain stared at her.

“Do you doubt your abilities, my young friend?” Bain asked.

“Yes.” Dev said. “I havent’ seen that much of them. “ She explained. “I trust the programming they gave me, but you are risking a lot on untested skills.”

Jess half turned in her seat so she was facing Dev. “You don’t want to stay here?”

Dev met her eyes. “I do.” She said. “But I don’t want to disappoint you.” 

Jess felt the lengthening silence as she studied the young, intense face next to her.  Finally she took a breath. “I’ll take my chances.”  She said, shifting to look back at Bain, who was watching them both with an expression of bemused interest.  “If you do this, you need to do it all the way. Give her full status.  Let everyone know. Then they’ll stop taking shots at her.”

Bain tapped his fingertips together again. “Agent Drake.” He said. “I certainly can send any amount of directives but I think it will take more than that for your new comrade to be accepted.” He gave her a meaningful look, one scrubby gray eyebrow hiking up.

Jess looked away, then back at him. “You do your part, I’ll do mine.”

Bain smiled. “Deal.” He said. “Now, about that mission?”

Jess settled back in her seat.  “We can’t do a frontal assault again. They’ll be keyed to it. I’ll need to insert.”

Bain nodded.

“Send me all the intel.”  Jess finally said.  “I’ll work up something.”

“Splendid.” The old man gave her a fond look. “Now, for  a more pleasant subject.  In recognition of your performance in this morning’s rescue I have added a senior level achievement to your records.”

Jess’s eyebrows rose.

“And I have advanced a benefit and comfort package to your colleague.” Bain pointed a forefinger at  Dev. “Since I know she came from the crèche with very little.  Enjoy it, my dear.”

Dev had no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded good. “Thank you sir.” She said. “I will continue trying to do my best.”

Bain leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “Thank you.” He said.  “People, we were in a serious crisis point yesterday.  I’m glad we made our way through it, but we’re not out of the woods yet.  Intelligence showed us that in this case, Agent Drake, there was no leak of information regarding your attack.”

“Not that I could tell, no.”  Jess agreed. “But does that mean we snuffed the leak, or they’re just in hiding, biding their time?”

Bain inclined his head.

“The key is, who turned Joshua.”  Jess continued. “Was it someone on the outside or someone on the inside.” She looked Bain in the eye. “I don’t think Bricker had the brains for it.”

Bain smiled faintly.  “He was my nephew.”

Only years of field service let Jess remain in her chair and not roll onto the floor.  She knew her eyes had widened and she clamped her jaw to keep it from dropping.

“My sister’s son.”  Bain went on, in a reflective tone.  “She gave him over when he was five.  I never thought he really did have the brains for it either, but he made it through the course.” He sniffed. “I agree with you, Drake.  I don’t think he was the leak, and he wasn’t the one who turned tech Joshua.”

“So that person’s still here, if it was an inside job.”

“You think it was.”

Jess gazed at him. “I spent almost every waking moment with him for nine years on the outside of this facility.  No one outside got close to him.”

“Hm.”

“But inside?” Jess went on.  “That was different.”

Bain sighed. “I have security doing an investigation on it.” He admitted.  “Very low key.”  He turned to Dev. “You will let us know, won’t you my dear, if anyone asks you to do something against us?”

“Yes.” Dev answered immediately. “That’s wrong.”

“Is that what your programming tells you?”  He cocked his head slightly.

Dev thought about that for a minute.  “They gave me the rules.” She said, after a bit. “But this ..  I think that’s an in here thing.” She touched her chest. “It feels wrong.”

“Hm.”  Bain nodded in approval. “Very good.” He focused back on Jess.  “Be on your way, Drake.  I’m sure you have things to settle.  I’ll have intelligence send you an info pack, and will expect your review in the very near term.”

Jess nodded and stood. “Thanks.” She said. “I’ll let you know what I think.”

Bain chuckled. “Of that I have no doubt.”  He sat back as they left, resting his elbows on the chair arm and twiddled his thumbs. “Dj?”

Doctor Dan came out from behind the big console behind them and came around to sit in the chair his bio alt had so recently vacated.  “Well?”

“Damn fine job.” Bain told him straightforwardly.  “Now, tell me the truth.  This wasn’t a last minute rush thing.”

The scientist shook his head. “No.” He said. “I’d been planning to introduce the idea to you, so I’d done the prep with Dev.” He added.  “The last set of tech skills, yes, that was a rush.  We had to write that on the fly, but I had the schema outlines already done.”

Bain nodded. “I think she’ll do well She has an interesting mix of intelligence and given knowledge.”

“She’s a good design.” Doctor Dan agreed.  “She won’t turn, by the way. They’ll have to kill her first. The one thing about the way I engineered her logic structure that wasn’t entirely logical.”

“You understand that at a gut level.”  Bain smiled faintly at him.

“Yes.” He smiled just as faintly back.  “I’ll miss Dev.  I really enjoyed watching her progress.”

‘I’m sure she’ll be fine with Drake.” Bain stood up.  “She’s already taken up a protective stance over your protégée as well as having been sufficiently distracted to allow her to get past that recent disaster.”

“She’s good people.” Doctor Dan said, as he joined Bain and they both disappeared behind the console, through a hidden door and into a quiet hallway. “I think Dev will do very well with her.”

“Hm.” Bain eyed him. “Sure you don’t want a job?”

Doctor Dan smiled a little. “I have a job.”

Bain snorted.

“So I suppose I really am staying.” Dev said, as they walked along the corridor.  “That was a very interesting meeting.”

“I told you that you were staying.” Jess chuckled. “Yeah, it was.” She admitted. “We’ll have to go back and see what kind of swag we got.  I’m glad he put you in for something.” She stepped into the lift, and waited for Dev to join her. “Let’s start at the top, and work our way down.”

“I’m not sure what that means.” Dev confessed.  “But it sounds nice.”

“Here’s the roof.”  Jess led the way out of the lift to a huge open space, with solid glass covering all of it.  Overhead the thick, dark clouds were drifting, and once they’d cleared the lift encasement they could see all around them out to the horizon.

 Dev turned around in a circle, looking at the vast, open barrenness on one side, and then out across what was now becoming a familiar venue of open ocean. 

“When the new class comes in, we’ll all gather here for the induction ceremony.” Jess told her. “With any luck I’ll get you started on the right foot with them and we can work from there.”

“It’s difficult isn’t it?” Dev said. “

“Hm.”  Jess looked at her. “Would it be easier for you if you stayed down with the rest of the bios?”

Dev put her hands behind her back. “Of course it would”

“Do you want to do that?”

“No.” Dev replied without hesitation. 

Jess smiled.  “Good.” She waved her hand. “Let’s go.  I’ll show you the gym and the rad facility, that’s on the next floor, and then we can go past the reference center and stop in at the exchange.”

“For the stuff?”

“Yeah, we’ll get some stuff. “

They had, in fact, gotten stuff.    Dev sat cross legged on her bed, surveying the items around her with a sense of bemusement.   She had learned a lot of new concepts including what rad was and why it was important to her, what the concept of luxury was, and the answer to the mystery of what to sleep in.

It was a little overwhelming.   Dev looked around her living space. Now not only did she have this place but she had another place, sort of like the little cubicle in the crèche, where she could study and do research while she was getting her required dose of sun replacement.

She had more space to herself here than anyone topside, even the most important people.  It was amazing and a little strange, but she suspected she’d get used to it after a while.

Now, this stuff.  Dev sorted among the items.  The exchange was full of stuff that Jess had called luxuries, items that were not given to them, but must be earned.  This included stuff from topside, she was surprised to see and she’d gotten a package of the little sweet puffs they’d eaten on rare occasions in the crèche.

You could also get things to wear, and Jess had told her it was easy to see the most successful agents and techs because they didn’t wear jumpsuits in off-time – they wore some of the things you could get in the exchange or – this was very interesting – things they bartered for in the living spaces outside.

For now, Dev had gotten a few pairs of soft short leggings and sleeveless shirts to sleep in, as that’s what Jess told her she used.   She set those aside and the puffs, and pulled over the box she’d found when she’d gotten back.

That was from the man with the gun, Jess had told her.   The box was full of things like insulated drink containers and a pack she could take on the carrier with her with compartments to carry things in. It had straps and hooks that would fasten to the console near her seat.

It was nice.  She liked it. There was also a folding tool she could use to get into hatches, that also had a knife in it – she’d seen Jess carry one  and a thing to wear that was thick and heavy and had a hood that was very warm when she put it on.

A jacket, Jess had called it, for when they were outside and had to leave the carrier.

Very interesting. 

Next, she removed a sanitary kit she could take in the carrier also.  It had wipes and little bottles of something you could put on  your skin and mouth rinse.   She could, Jess had told her, order more for it when she’d used it all.

Also very interesting.

Dev got up and found places for all her new stuff, in the drawers of the big cabinet mostly.  Once that was done, she picked up her book from her workspace and climbed up into the relaxing area and sat down on the couch.

She had some time before Jess came back and she settled back in the couch, opening the book and reading from where she’d left off. 

Jess finished requesting data, then she logged off the intel system and sat down at the small desk, using a stylus to make a few notes on the folder she was carrying.    She wrote in silence for a few minutes, then glanced up as the door behind her opened.

Shit. She cursed silently. “Hello  Jared.”

The tall, spare medical director came over and sat in the seat next to her.   “How long did you figure on ignoring the request to med?”

“I’ve been busy.” Jess said, continuing to scribble. “Besides, what would be the point?  Bain put me back into service. He ranks you.”

“Yeah and I heard what he does to people who disagree with him.”  Jared spared a brief smile.  “I wouldn’t have said no to him either.  But you still have a hold on your chart – want to spend ten minutes with me and get it cleared legit?”

Jess checked the time on the console. “If its only ten minutes, sure.” She finished writing and stood up. “I’ve got an appointment to get to.”

She followed Jared down the  hall, out of the gray section into the white, passing suite after suite of examination and operation rooms most fortunately now not in use.   She’d spent her time in those rooms and like any other agent hated the place.

Jared led her into a small exam room, the one she knew was right next to his offices.   She sealed and put the folder down on the desk and lay down on the exam table, feeling the warmth and tickle of the diagnostic systems.

 “You look like you’re feeling better.” Jared commented, from behind the console. “Your back still giving you problems?”

“No.” Jess shook her head. “A little tender, that’s all.”  She clarified. “Still a little heat sensitive.”

Jared nodded. “Hold still.”

Jess felt the scan focus on her head and she closed her eyes.

“How’s your sleeping?”

“Okay the last few days.” Jess cracked one eyeball open cautiously, then opened them both as the scan faded.  “Been too busy to think about it.”

“Hm. That’s what I thought.” Jared came from around the console and appeared next to her. “I can still see adherence in there. You could have gotten into trouble going out.”

Jess lifted a hand and wiggled it’s fingers. “The only thing I exercised yesterday were these. “ She said. “I shot the hell out of everything while sitting on my ass.”

Jared snorted, then chuckled a little. “I heard.  About that, and about your new pilot.” He studied Jess’s face. “How’s that going?”

“She’s fine.”  His erstwhile patient said.  “Pretty good pilot.  Not a bad personality. “

“For a bio alt, you mean.”

“For anyone.   She’s a nice kid.  We’re getting along pretty well.” Jess responded.  “Bain’s just sending orders down to make her permanent.”

“I saw. I got them.”  Jared said. “I want to see her too, to get a baseline. You think that’s going to work?  Most people I talked to didn’t.”

Jess half shrugged. “Most people you’ve talked to haven’t worked with her.  They think bios are walking jelly bag brains.   Dev isn’t.  She’s not one of us, but she’s not one of them either.”

“Huh. You sure that’s not just wishful thinking?”

“Talk to her and form your own opinion.” Jess said. “Done now? I’ve got places to go and people to see.”

Jared leaned against the table.  “I’m done.  You look like you’re finally on the right track again, Jess. You had me worried there for a few weeks.  Maybe everything going to shit was good for you.”

Jess smiled wryly. “Kicked my head out of my ass, you mean.” She interpreted. ‘Yeah, maybe.  At least I’m not upchucking all night from nightmares.”

“No you aren’t.” He turned off the scanner. “Your bodyweight’s stopped dropping.  I’m going to release you officially so they don’t have to keep overriding me from ops.” He said, in a droll tone.  “Nice to know just exactly how much authority I really have.”

Jess sat up and swung her long legs off the table.  “Don’t feel bad, Jared.  Bain steam rolled over pretty much everything but then – he’s the old man.”

“Yes, he is.”  The medico agreed. “A lot of people got the shit scared out of them by him.  No one expected … I mean, you hear the stories and all that, but no one thought he’d just come in here and start shooting.”

“No.” Jess retrieved her folder. “But he did.”

“What I’m wondering now is – will he stay here, or is he going to pick someone to replace Bricker?” Jared watched her face closely.  “What do you think?”

Jess shrugged both shoulders. “I’m just an agent.  I try to think as little as possible.” She turned and headed for the door.

“Senior agent, now.”

Jess looked back over her shoulder and grinned, then she went through the door and was gone.

The dining hall was almost empty when Jess and Dev entered it.  None of the other agents or techs were there, just a few console operators from the ops center nearby, and  alone in the corner, Stephen Bock.

Jess gave him a casual wave as she took a seat at a small table and motioned Dev to do the same.   “So here’s how this works.” She said.  “That screen shows you what’s available tonight.  You tap on what you want, and they deliver it.”

“I see.”  Dev regarded the screen.  “Why do they do that, if they make you go pick it up the rest of the time?”

“Tradition.”  Jess said.  “There are some things we do… just because that’s the way we’ve always done them and no one wants to change it because it meant something way back when.”  She keyed something into the pad. “I’ll throw a few credits at this.”

Dev studied her choices, and made her selection.  Then she folded her hands on the table and regarded her tablemate.  “Is it something like these?” She touched the insignia at her neck.

“Something like that.” Jess agreed. “You’ll see more of the traditional stuff when we attend the incoming ceremony for the new class.”  She smiled. “I remember when it was me up there.  I”d never seen any place like this before.”

Dev pondered that. “We have… I guess it’s sort of like that when we graduate from basic learning.” She said. “We all come into a big room, and they take record of all our designations and where we would be going for advanced classes.”

“Yeah.” Jess nodded. “I had that in school.”

“Then they took us all to medical and had our collars installed.” Dev touched her throat.  “They said we were all grown up then.”

Jess leaned her chin on her fist. “So… they don’t do that special programming with you until you’re older?”  She looked up as a bio alt waitservant approached, with a tray. “Thanks.”

The man placed the drink she’d ordered on the table, and then, with the barest hesitation, put a second one in front of Dev.

“Thank you.” Dev looked up at him.

The man nodded, then he straightened and went back into the preparation area. 

Jess snorted and shook her head.

“That’s a Ceebee 245.” Dev commented. “They do that – the serving thing, up in the crèche too, for the natural borns in the fancy places.”

“They do?”

“Yes.”  Dev said. “They don’t give us any programming until we graduate basic.  They teach us the regular way before that.  Reading, and writing, and basic skills.”

“Huh.” Jess sipped her drink.  “I guess that’s not too different from how I grew up.  I was in pre school until I was five, and they gave us the aptitude battery.”  She said. “Then they sent me to the academy, on my sixth birthday.”

Dev took a sip of the glass she’d been given finding a medium fizzy beverage with a taste that reminded her of the soy nuts that had sometimes been served in the crèche. “What is this?”

“Beer.”  Jess said. “Like it?”

Dev tasted it again. “I think so.”  She said, after a pause. “So what did they teach you at the academy? Is that where all of the people here went?”

 “What did they teach me.” Jess mused. “I hardly remember.  Like you said, reading and writing I suppose. Some math, geography.  History. How we got to be in the situation we’re in, that sort of thing, for classes.” She paused, as the server came back and put down their plates.  “Then at… I guess around age ten they start teaching us the business.” She lifted her hand and made a circle over her head, encompassing the structure around them.

“So, you knew you wanted to do this?” Dev cut a bit of the fish on her plate and put it in her mouth.

“Wasn’t given a choice.”  Jess was plowing through her meal.

Dev stopped chewing. “Really?”

Jess looked up at her. “Really.”  She washed her mouthful down with a swallow of the beer.  “Didn’t really want a choice, that’s what the battery is for.  My family’s been doing this for ever, so when I tested high it was a foregone conclusion that I’d go, and I’d graduate, and I’d come to a place like this and do what we do.”

“Wow.”  Dev took another sip of the fizzy beverage.   “So all the other people we work with, the ones we went on the mission with, they all did that too?”

“Not exactly.  The agents, me, and Elaine, Jason, Sandy… we all did.  So did Stephen over there, and the guy who got his head taken off.  Anyone who wears the black bars like I do.  They do the whole course, from childhood.”  Jess explained. “The techs, like Brent, come in around your age.  They get schooled on the outside, and if they pass the tests and the background checks and the psych, they get admitted.” She forked up some of the fish and ate it. “Damn, that’s good.”

“Oh.”  Dev was also enjoying the taste.  “So that’s why I heard someone call them outsiders?”

“Yes.”  Jess nodded.  “They come to what we call field school.  During that, they get matched to an agent, and then sent out as a team usually with a couple others to someplace like this.”

None of this had been in the programming, Dev realized. Only the rules and regulations of Interforce, and the technical knowledge she’d need to do the job.

“There are always more techs than agents.” Jess said, after a short silence.  “We get in the way of blasters more often.” She gave Dev a wry wink.  “But we can choose to leave. I almost did the other day.”

“Yes.”  Dev murmured.  “I’m really glad you didn’t.”

Jess paused in mid chew, as she met the serious, earnest eyes gazing at her.  After a moment she hastily swallowed. “Yeah, I’m kinda glad too. “ She said. “It’s gotten a lot more interesting here lately.”

Her tablemate looked a touch puzzled, but then smiled.

They both looked up, a little startled, as they heard a throat being cleared nearby.  Stephen Bock was standing by their table, his hands in the pockets of his jumpsuit. 

“Stephen.”  Jess motioned to a seat. “Join us.”

“No, just stopping to offer my congratulations.” Stephen said. “I saw your ranking change.  Well deserved, Jess.”

“Thanks.”  Jess accepted the words with a brief nod.

“And congratulations to you too.” Stephen turned to Dev. “The system recorded your permanent assignment here.  So welcome.”

Dev had put her utensils down when he’d started speaking and now she nodded. “Thank you.” She said, politely.  “I’m glad I was able to contribute to good results.”

“Well, you did a good job, and I hope we can trust you to keep Jess’s ass out of the fire again in the future.”  Stephen said.

Dev looked at him, then she glanced at Jess, as one eyebrow hiked up.  “They didn’t cover that in the programming either.” She apologized. “I’m not really sure what to do with your ass.”

Jess hastily swallowed what was in her mouth and clapped her hand over it, snorting and then dissolving into laughter. 

Stephen covered his eyes, and sat down in the seat abruptly.

Dev regarded them with mild amusement until they recovered their composure.  “Sorry about that.” She apologized. “I don’t really understand some of the things you say sometimes.  I have a few I need to look up in the reference library later on.”

“What he meant was.”  Jess cleared her throat and wiped a tear from her eye.  “He expects you to keep me out of trouble.”

Dev pondered that, taking a sip of her beer. “Isn’t our job to get into trouble?”

Stephen started chuckling again.  “You really do have a sense of humor.” He complimented her.  “But I think Jess would have said, your job is to cause trouble.” He rubbed his eyes. “Ah well, it’s been a day.” He let his hands rest on his knees.  “Recap tomorrow, Jess?”

“See you in ops.” Jess agreed, giving him a nod as he got up and headed for the door to the hall.  After the door closed behind him, she looked back at Dev. “You can just ask if you don’t understand what the hell I’m saying, y’know.”

Dev smiled as she finished up her meal.  “I will next time.” She said. “Sometimes I can guess what it is by the conversation around it, but all the stuff about horses and asses and things confuses me. “

Jess chuckled again. “You’re so damn funny.”

“Is it? I mean.. am I?” Dev put her utensils down. “I wasn’t trying to be that time.”  She paused, and looked up as the server came back again, putting down a final set of plates. They contained a square of dark brown substance, which she studied as the man removed the other plates. “Thank you.”

“Ahhh. “ Jess pulled over her own plate. “Now that’s a rare treat.  I didn’t think they were doing these until the induction ceremony.”

“They were testing them, ma’am.” The server replied quietly. “We were instructed to give them to all the patrons here tonight.” He turned and disappeared again.

“Hey, wait.”  Jess called after him. “Bring us over some kack, then.  These don’t go with beer.” She broke off a corner of the substance and popped it into her mouth. “Mm.”

Dev tentatively did the same, mouthing the substance as her eyes opened wide. “Oh.”  She blinked. “Wow. What is that?”

“It’s called a brownie.” Jess was busy with her own. “I guess because it’s brown.” She regarded the item. “One of the very few things from the old times they can still make, though I think they make it now with rice flour from the paddy caverns and gulls eggs.” She looked up. “Like it?”

“Yes.” Dev answered immediately. “It’s really nice.”

Jess looked up, then looked around carefully. ‘Want to see if we can steal whatever’s left back there?”’

Dev looked up from her plate. “I thought I was supposed to keep you out of trouble?”

Jess just grinned at her.

 

Partners

Part 6

Dev curled up on her side, pulling the light cover over her and settling her head onto the cool pillow.  The lights were already dim in her quarters and she exhaled, as a moderate quiet descended over the room and she took a breath of air that still held a hint of plastic from the unpacking of all her stuff.

She could hear various soft noises, of course, doors opening, and the far off sound of the air circulators and machinery.  Noises like that had been a part of her existence since she could remember, though, so she found them soothing more than disturbing and after a minute, they faded back and she was able to ignore them.

Closer at hand, though, now she could hear faint sounds next door, beyond the inner panel that separated her room from Jess’s.  Motion, as though the agent was pacing.  The sound of the dispenser opening and closing.  ;

Voices.   Dev listened, and thought she caught Jason’s low, male tones, then a definite echo that was Jess’s laugh.

She liked that sound.  Jess didn’t laugh often, but when she did it made her face relax and brighten and her eyes sparkle and Dev was glad to see that because she knew she’d caused it herself a few times and Jess seemed to appreciate the humor when she had.

Very good.   Dev stretched and exhaled, finding herself very happy.

It felt good to lie there quietly, after the very long, very active day.  Her body was tired but there was so much to think about she didn’t really want to just go to sleep right away. 

Jess had shown here where the flight log was in the computer, so she could look over it and she decided she would tomorrow to see what she’d done, and what improvements she could make.   Then there was the carrier to go inspect, and Jess said she’d take her to the systems workshop and show her where she could build the modules they would use.

And Jess was working on a new mission for them, so maybe she’d find out about that tomorrow too, and there was the gym to explore, and…

Phew.  Dev smiled into the darkness.   So busy, but that was good.

She was wearing her new sleeping clothes, finding them really comfortable and light, and her whole body now cozy and warm in the big bed.  She could feel sleep slowly coming over her despite her best intentions and though there was more to think about she let her eyes close.

She was just drifting off when the door buzzer chimed, a soft light coming on next to the inner portal as her eyes popped wide open again.

Quickly, she got out of bed and went over to it, putting her palm against the scan plate and blinking a little as it slid open and the brighter light of Jess’s quarters flooded in.   “Oh, hello.”

“Whoops.” Jess was holding something in her hand, her body outlined against the light. “My bad. Didn’t know you were sacked out. “

“Only just.” Dev said. “Is there something wrong? Do we need to do something?”

“No.” Jess leaned against the doorway.  “I won a flask off Jason on a bet on our rescue. Thought I would share a glass with you since we both were part of it.”

“Oh!”  Dev smiled, and took a step back. “That would be very nice.”

Jess took that as an invitation and crossed over to the worktable, taking a seat in one of the chairs and setting what she was carrying on the table. She had two small cups in her other hand and she put them down as well, the items softly scraping and clunking against the hard surface.

Dev sat down in the other chair, and waited, watching her.  Jess was wearing the same short outfit she was, and the low lights outlined her tall form with an interesting mix of points and shadows.   The red mark, from the burning had gained a black bumpy outline and Dev wondered if there would be one for the thing they’d done that day.

Then she figured she could just ask, and she did.

“Hhm.” Jess was pouring a measure of the liquid in the big bottle into the cups.  “Not usually for a rescue, no.” She said. “That gets a different reward.” She indicated the thick jacket hanging outside the gray cabinet. “That, or my promotion, that kind of thing.  Missions are planned. They’re.” She pondered. “Attacks, not defenses.”

“I see.” Dev took the cup when it was handed to her.  “What is this?”

‘This comes from topside.”  Jess said. “Matter of fact, it comes from the other side’s topside. It’s honey mead.” She held it up to the light, displaying a rich, golden color. “From their Ag station. They’ve still got bees there.  We lost all ours.”

Dev sniffed it. “How interesting.” She said. “We learned about bees in the crèche, but I’ve never seen them. They just used artificial pollination in the gardens there.”

“Hold that out.” Jess said, and then, when she had, touched her own cup to the one in the bio alt’s hand.  “To this experiment, however far it goes.” Then she brought the cup to her lips and sipped the contents.  “Welcome, Dev.”

‘Thank you.” Dev copied her, finding the liquid thick and rich, and sweet, burning very gently as it went down her throat into her belly.    It almost made her shiver.   “Wow.”

Jess cupped her hands around her glass and smiled. “What do you think of it?”

Dev took another sip, pausing to think.  “It’s very different.” She said. “It feels like it’s staying on my tongue a long time after I drink it.”

“Uh huh.” Jess studied her, intrigued and a little surprised at the supple power of her new pilots body, now relatively exposed in the light clothing.  Her arms and legs were firm with muscle and she had visible definition under her light golden skin.

Jess hadn’t expected that, but then, she had to admit she never really had thought about it too much before either.  

Bio Alts in the citadel were just window dressing.  Jess had no idea if any of them even had names. She certainly never bothered to look at them with their clothing off.

But this one, now.

This one interested her.  She watched Dev cautiously swallow another mouthful, and after a brief pause, lick her lips, an approving expression on her face.  “Like it?”

Those clear, pale eyes lifted and met hers. “It has alcohol in it?”

“Yes.”  Jess chuckled briefly.  “Our one remaining vice.”

Dev nodded. “In the crèche, too.” She admitted. “Doctor Dan gave me some before I left, but it was really different from this.” She said. “I like this, and the stuff we had at dinner.”

“Yeah, the beer’s not bad.”  Jess leaned against the workspace table.  “You get to taste some really weird stuff on the outside. You’ll see.”

Dev looked up at that, and grinned. “I will.” She said. “I’m glad.  We heard stories about downside from some of the people that came to the crèche, but it sounded so strange we didn’t believe most of it.”

Jess grinned back. She was getting used to seeing the collar, she realized, the faint glowing traces not really seeming out of place around Dev’s neck.  The metal itself was very thin and flexed a little as Dev moved and she wondered if it was ever uncomfortable. 

What would it feel like?  She only just stopped herself from reaching out to touch the thing, and supposed Dev didn’t pay much attention to it. Guess you could get used to pretty much anything, she decided.  “Does that bother you?”

“Huh?”  Dev looked around, then at her. “What?”

“The collar.”   Now, Jess surrendered to curiosity and lifted her hand up, touching it with her fingertips. “Does it pinch, or whatever?” She could feel the almost smooth surface shift a little, as Dev swallowed.

“No.”  Dev cleared her throat, glancing aside with a touch of embarrassment in her expression.  “ Don’t think much about it usually.”

Jess lowered her hand.  “It feels warm.”

“Body heat.”  The bio alt explained briefly.  “When I got it put on at first it used to… “ She paused. “I felt it, sometimes.  But now I don’t.”  She looked up at met Jess’s eyes. “When you get programmed, the sensors come down over your head and clip into the slots here.” She touched the collar herself. “Then they tell you to go down, and when you come back up, there’s a bunch of new knowledge there.”’

“Huh.”  Jess rested her chin on her hand. “Do you know ahead of time what you’re getting?”

“Sometimes.”

“Did you ever get something you didn’t like?”

Dev considered that soberly.  Had she?  “I don’t think so.”

Jess grunted softly. “I can remember some classes I wish I hadn’t been forced to take.” She admitted, “You’re lucky.”

Dev looked thoughtful for a long moment, then she smiled. “Yes, I am.”   She glanced away and then back again.  “Are we going to go outside soon? For this mission thing?”

‘Yes.”  Jess replied. “I just haven’t planned out when and where yet.  But it’ll be soon.  They want this taken care of before it can take hold.”  She added. “So get some rest tonight.   We might be on the move after they get me the weather and mechanical status tomorrow and then the timing and sleep gets pretty random.”

Dev nodded.  “Night and day didn’t mean much in the crèche.  At end of schedule, you just reported to your sleep pod, and stayed in it until the cycle completed.  She looked around the room. “I like it better here.  You don’t know what might happen.”

“You like that?”

“I think it’s really interesting.” Dev replied.  “Everything’s new and different.”

Jess leaned her elbows on her knees, and studied her cup.  “I never thought about it like that.” She admitted. “Every day is different here, in a way.” She exhaled.  “So I better let you get some rest and go sack out myself.”

“Thank you for the drink.”  Dev finished hers.  “It was very nice of you.”

Jess met her eyes, and smiled.  “Ah.” She stood up.  “Dangerous for me to drink it all myself.  I end up walking into walls and singing.”  She took Dev’s cup and the bottle. “I’m glad it worked out this morning, Dev.”

“Me too.” Dev smiled back, letting her elbow rest on the back of the chair she was sitting in. “You know, it’s the one thing we bio alts all really want. To find a place we can belong, and to do good work.”

Jess raised the bottle, and then she turned and approached the door. It slid open as she neared, and then closed behind her.  

Dev sat there for a while, absorbing the sweet taste on her tongue, and replaying Jess’s words in her head.    She decided she liked the agent a lot, appreciating her straightforward ways and her quirky sense of humor.

And she had been, except for Doctor Dan, the kindest person Dev had met so far anywhere, almost treating her just like another natural born sometimes.   It was nice, and it made her feel really good and with an abrupt suddenness, she realized no matter what difficulties they would face, she wanted to be here, and not go back to the crèche.

Even if it was hard.  It was good not to have proctors all around her, or the sameness of classes, or being treated like just one face among many.

It was good to have interesting people around her, even if some of them were rude.  It was good to be able to do hard, and difficult things.

Abruptly, the door between her quarters and Jess’s opened, making her blink as the tall, dark haired woman leaned into the opening.  “Hello.” She murmured, half sitting up and peering through the shadows.

“Door’s not locked.” Jess outlined the obvious.  “So just don’t scare yourself if you walk by and it opens.” She ducked back away and the door closed again, leaving the room once more in quiet peace.

Dev studied the door, quite surprised.   She could see the scan pad light was now a calm green instead of the red it had been before, and she wondered what that was supposed to mean.    She diligently searched her programming, but there were no references to anything like that in there.

Figures.  Dev got up and went behind her workspace, sitting down and pulling her pad over to her, logging in with a thumb press and calling up the rulebook of the citadel, which had provided her with a lot of useful information so far.

After a few minutes reading, she pushed the pad back, unsatisfied. There was nothing in the book about doors, or quarters, or anything like that.   Dev rested her chin on her hand and frowned a little. Then she sighed and got up, returning to her bed and snuggling back under the covers.

Maybe it didn’t mean anything. Maybe it was just Jess’s way of saying she was happy with having Dev on her team.  

Maybe she’d just gotten tired of ringing the bell.

Dev let her eyes close again, this time, fading into sleep before she really had a chance to think about anything else.

Jess set the bottle down in her cabinet, and put the glasses on the tray underneath.  She studied it for a moment, and then she turned and wandered over to her bed, dropping down onto it and looking up at the ceiling.

She was tired.  It felt good to be tired, in the way that you got when you’d expended energy in doing something worthwhile rather than just hung around the citadel kicking yourself.

Body tired, instead of mind tired.  She stretched and settled herself, squirming around and getting under the covers as the lights dimmed down around her, as her eyes caught the soft glow of the light across the room.

What, she pondered, would her new pilot think about the door? Would she understand why Jess had turned off the security between them?  Probably not. She smiled wryly. Hell, she really didn’t understand why she’d done it, except that she’d realized she had found a little bit of sympathy in her for Dev, who had been thrown into her world with only the barest of preparation for it.

She’d always been a sucker for the underdog, and Dev had risen to the challenge, with a calm courage that surprised and charmed her, and made her want to do what she could to keep the kid on the right track.

Everyone had thought Dev was going to be at best, and embarrassment and at worst, a mortal danger to the people she was here to work with, and it made her feel good to know she’d had a part in having the bio alt prove otherwise.

Jess wanted her to succeed.  She smiled into the darkness.  She did, and in the silence of her own conscience she could admit that she did and it had nothing to do with what Bain wanted either.  It felt good to have something to focus on that kept her interested.

Dev interested her.  She suspected she would go in interesting her.   She also suspected they could achieve good things together, and success.  Jess rolled over onto her side and wrapped her arms around her pillow.

She felt her body relax, and she spent a few minutes going over the day in her mind, before the pictures slowly faded into her dreams and she was out, her breathing slowing and evening, a smile still on her face.

The alarm brought Dev standing up in an instant, her heart thundering, as she looked around her in shocked bewilderment.  The lights had snapped on in her quarters, and she could hear noises outside, but in this very moment she had no idea what to do.

The alarm was a low, unnerving howl, growing to a climax and then falling again, setting her nape hairs on edge as the screen above her workstation lit up showing a grid of the citadel with lots of flashing red points.

Something was wrong.  After a second of indecision, she bolted for the door between her and Jess’s quarters reaching it just as it popped open, revealing the dark haired woman halfway through getting into her jumpsuit.  “Oh!”

“Get kitted up.” Jess said. “We’re under attack.”

Dev scooted over to the dressing case and started getting out of her sleep ware, glad of the clear direction.   She hesitated, and then grabbed the suit she used in the carrier, jumping into it and sliding the catches closed with one hand as she grabbed her boots with the other.

“Where are they??”  Jess’s voice bellowed from the next room. “Airborne?!”

Dev got her boots on and grabbed her pilots kit, shaking her head to clear it as she headed again for the door that had stayed wide open. 

Jess was fastening her sidearm, her head bent towards the comms unit on her workspace.  “The dock?  The shuttle dock?”

“That’s right!” A voice answered. “Stupid bastards are pounding the landing pad, shuttle’s in there was about to leave!”

“What the hell?”  Jess grabbed her heavy rifle. “C’mon, Dev.” She said. “Stay close to me out of the way. Not sure if we need to launch or not.”

“Yes.”  Dev was, again, very glad for the clear direction.  “I’m ready.”

Jess looked at her, then smiled briefly. “Yes, you are.” She said. “Good choice on the suit.” She turned back towards the door. “Central, live fire in the halls coming down.”

“Watch out! We heard fire in the outer halls! They may have penetrated!”  The voice came back. “Ops to all details – stand by! Stand by we may have enemy in the complex!”

“Shit.”  Jess slammed her comm helmet on her head and headed for the door. “Put your hat on, kid.  You see anyone pointing anything at you dive for the floor.”

“Yes..”  Dev put on her own unit, clicking into the comm stream and hearing an eruption of voices as she settled the earpiece in.   She got right behind Jess and stuck with her as they went out the door in the front of Jess’s quarters, and entered the hall.

Lights were flashing a deep, warning red. The entryway to central ops was likewise lit up and down the curved hall there came the sound of heavy, running footsteps. 

“Go in that entryway, put your back to it.”  Jess stepped out into the hallway and blocked the way into ops, swinging her heavy rifle up and into position as a group of dark clad bodies came barreling around the curve at her.

Dev did as she was told, hitting the wall with her back just as she heard Jess release the safety mechanism on the big weapon she was holding.

“Halt!” Jess let out a powerful bellow.

“Whoa whoa!”  The man in the lead put the brakes on and held a hand up. “Security! Hey! We’re friendly!”

Dev quickly poked her head out from behind the steel entranceway and saw six men in heavy armor ramble to a halt and duck for cover, despite the fact they were far more heavily armed and outnumbered the lone agent holding the hall against them.

She could see their widened eyes and had to wonder.

Jess kept them hopping for a second, then she shifted the muzzle of the heavy gun.  “What’s the scoop? Nothing’s down here. You guarding ops?”

“Affirm.”  The man in front said.

“Right.” Jess surged into motion. “C’mon, Dev.”

Dev followed her down the hall and past the security guards, as they rapidly came past them and took up station at the entrance to the command center.  “They were scared of you.” She commented to Jess, as they sped through the central hall.

“Sure.”  Jess was turning her head from side to side, her hands shifting on the gun. “I’m an ops agent. We’re nuts and they know it.”

“I see.”

Jess heard the sound of live fire percussion up ahead and she slowed a little, hugging the wall. “Actually, what they really know is that if I think they’ve turned, or working against the best interests of the organization in my estimation I’ll blow them apart.”

“Oh.”

“They have to wait for permission to blow me apart.”

“Oh.” Dev’s vocal inflection changed completely.

“Stay behind me.”  Jess flattened herself against the wall.   She could hear the explosions and she sidled forwards and reached the curve, ducking down and snaking her head around the edge to see what lay past it.

The hall, surprisingly, was clear, but she saw flashes past the next set of doors.  “Okay, c’mon.”  She straightened and moved along the hall, coming around the bend and seeing Jason and Brent crouching just out of the line of sight. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Jason glanced past her, then back down the hall as Jess and Dev joined them.  “Fucking mess. I swear this place is going to shit.”

“What’s up?”  Jess touched her ear. “Don’t hear crap on com.” She said. “Anyone know what the deal is?”

“Shuttle landed. Next thing we knew we had inbound, and a big bang on the dock.”  Jason said, in clipped tones.  “Heard blaster fire in the outhall. They blew the cams so no one can see what the hell’s going on.”

“Let’s go. Next door.” Jess pointed, then she led the way forward, with Jason right at her side. 

Brent and Dev followed along.  Dev noticed Brent was also carrying his pilots’ gear and he, like her, didn’t have a weapon.  She hadn’t seen any of the techs carry a gun, and she figured that was why she had no programming at all about them.

She knew what they were, of course.   She’d seen pictures of them.  But she’d never encountered anyone with them in the crèche; even the security proctors who were in charge of keeping order didn’t carry anything more than a shock stick.

The sounds of the explosions got abruptly louder, and then they heard yells.  

Jess started running and they came around the corner in time to see the outer doors explode inwards, with a percussive shock that nearly knocked them off their feet. “Breach! Breach!” Jess yelled into her com.  “Seal the ring! They blew the outer door!”

Dev heard a deep rumbling sound that rattled her bones and as she glanced behind her she saw huge portals sliding shut blocking off any escape back down the corridor.  As they closed she felt the air compress around her, and then they were in two sets of curved hallway blocked off from anything other than whatever was making so much noise up ahead.

“Down!” Jason bellowed, and they all fell flat on their stomachs as fire came down the hall, slamming into the wall behind where they’d just been standing.

Jason and Jess started firing back, spraying the opening with heavy blasts as they spotted friendly fire from inside the alcove shooting back at the blasted outer door.   “We have enemy action on the dock.”   Jess called into the com.  “We’re moving in.  Stand by to vent on my mark.”

“Standing by.  Shuttle crew sealed their flight deck, ops.”  The com came back. “They took some heavy damage.”

“Roger that.”  Jess started swarming forward across the ground, firing as she moved.  Jason angled after her getting a slightly different line of fire and crossing hers as they covered the opening and prevented anything from emerging from it.  “Too bad. They could just lift and end our problem.”

Dev clipped her gear to her suit and copied Jess’s motions.  She tried to keep behind the two ops agents as best she could, without bumping into the stolidly crawling Brent.

She felt a little helpless, and looking at her fellow tech, she thought maybe he did too, since he looked like he was in a very bad mood and he flinched every time the weapons made a loud noise.

He glanced at her. “Don’t like being a target.” He muttered.  “Sucks.”

Dev nodded in sympathetic agreement. “It would be better to be flying.”

For a moment, Brent stared blankly at her, then faintly, his lips twisted into a reluctant smile.  “Yeah.”

“Movement!” Jess aimed down a line, and blasted a red flare towards the smoking entrance, as Jason rolled to one side and took his own aim, hopping sideways at the very last moment as a blue blast scored the ground where he’d just been lying.   “Watch it!”

“Same you!” Jason saw a round blob travel inside and caught it with his blaster, sending a wave of energy through the hall along with a booming roar.  “Trigger bomb! Watch your eyes!”

Then all at once a lot of things happened.   The opening they were moving towards filled with big, blocky figures and Jess and Jason hauled up onto their knees, blasting away as fast they could as the intruders blasted back at them.

Fire landed all around them and Dev rolled over and hugged the wall, ducking her head as a bolt hit the surface just over her so close she felt the heat against her shoulder blades.

“Duck!” Jess yelled, as she removed something from her belt and threw it, then went flat to the ground and covered her head.  

A guttural yell was heard, then a moment later a deep, violet flash flooded the hall, followed by a ripping sound and a huge, ear rending thump.

“Clear!” Jason yelled a half second later, and the two agents scrambled to their feet and bolted forward, with their techs a couple steps behind them.   The opening was now empty, and the steel stained a deep, smoky black and they ran through a field of energy that made them all twitch.

It was almost painful.  Dev almost cried out. But it faded as they jumped over the still bodies on the ground and they were in the outer entry. 

It was almost unrecognizable.  The door to the shuttle bay had been blown apart, and the console Dev had first seen as she entered was nothing but shards.   As they crossed the threshold there was movement to their left and Jess turned and aimed in a motion so fast and smooth it seemed there was no thought at all involved.

Her eyes tracked and targeted the motion and just as quickly, she turned her weapon aside and then turned 360, checking for other intruders as she trusted her senses in marking the threat as a friendly.

The motion continued though, and through the haze and smoke a figure appeared with a blaster in hand and joined them.  “Thanks for not blasting me, Drake. Would have been a pity after all that.”

“Doctor Dan.” Dev blurted, in deep surprise.

“Yes.”  Doctor Dan tipped the blaster muzzle up and let it rest against his collarbone.  “Haven’t had to do that in a while.” He observed the destruction, and the scattered bodies on the outside, as well as the pile of silent figures on the inside. . “Nice grenade hit.” He complimented Jess.

“Thanks.” Jess regarded him in bemusement.  “Was that you laying down fire from the back there?”

“Mmhm.”  Doctor Dan produced a brief smile. “Certainly got the old blood pumping, I’ll admit.”

“What the hell happened?”  Jason asked, as both he edged out into the pad, and swept the area.    Overhead, the sound of a carrier engine was heard, and they looked up to see four of the big vehicles hovering.  “Are we clear?”

“Affirm, ground ops.”  The com crackled. “We’re clear airside.  BR76004, BR76003, remain in formation until released.  BR75003, BR74034, return to base.”

“BR74034, clear.”

“BR75003, clear.”

Two of the carriers split off and disappeared, while the remaining to started a slow circling patrol over the shuttle bay.

“We’re clear groundside.” Jess reported. “Six down need a cleanup. Drake on com.”

“Affirm, will send, thanks Drake.”

Brent was kneeling beside one of the intruders and he kicked them over with his boot.  “Stormers.”  He glanced up. “They get dropped? Where’s the log?”

Dev slowly looked around at the destruction, and then at Doctor Dan, who was standing easily with the gun resting against his shoulder, as natural with it as Jess had been.   He turned his head and looked back at her, his gentle smile appearing.

“You all right, Dev?” He asked. “Terrible way to wake up, isn’t it?”

“Different.” Dev acknowledge.  “I took no harm.” She added. “Did you?”

“No.” Doctor Dan shook his head. “Despite me being far too old to be messing with these things, I managed not to crack anything besides a smile this time.” 

Jess came back in from the pad, shaking her head.  “What the hell was that all about?” She wondered. ‘This is the most heavily defended part of the citadel and they know it. What were they after?”

Doctor Dan cleared his throat. “Me, probably.”  He said, in a diffident tone. “I was about to board the shuttle to leave.” He peered outside.  “I heard the engines overhead and got back inside just as they came down right on top of the pad.”

“You?” Jess stared at him.

“Mm.”  Doctor Dan thumbed the safety back on the gun in his hand.  “Apparently I’ve made a breakthrough they don’t want continued.”  He said. “Somewhat the same as the vegetation advance you will likely be trying to circumvent on that side, Agent Drake.”

“Breakthrough.”  Jess turned and looked at Dev, then back at the doctor, her eyebrows lifting.

Doctor Dan shrugged modestly.  “I was listed on the passenger manifest.” He indicated the grounded shuttle.  “I should be flattered. They sent a six man team in. I suppose they were supposed to get me between when I left the citadel door and before I cleared the hatch.”

“And then what?”’

“Well, either kill me or take me.” Doctor Dan said, dryly.  “They’ve got their own bio alt program, you know.  Never got very far though. They just have some very basic models.”  He smiled again. “The one thing I suspect they didn’t expect is that I’d know who they were and start shooting at them.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to wait for you to leave here?” Jason asked.

“Interforce is the last stop on this shuttle run. It goes right up to the station after that. They could try to blow the shuttle up out of the sky, but it would go up and into space before they probably caught her.” Doctor Dan said.  “But it sure was audacious.”

“That’s damn sure.”  Jess ran a hand through her hair, and grimaced a trifle.  “Well, glad they got skunked anyway.”

Now, the room was starting to fill with people. Dev kept to one side, as technicians poured in and Stephen Bock arrived at a run, puling up to a halt next to their little group. “Came in at sea level.” He said. “They were up and over the ridge before the systems caught them and in there.” He looked at the bay.  “They dropped a team and went topside. Too fast, and too high for us to follow.”

“Huh.”  Jess grunted. “Told you they’d get an advantage going half space with those damn things.” She said. “We can’t chase them.”

‘Wasn’t my decision.”  Stephen said, shortly.  “Everyone clear?”

Jason looked around. “Looks like.”

It was then that Bock noticed Doctor Dan standing there.  “Mr. Bain was asking for you.”

“I bet he was.”  Kurok handed over his blaster to one of the security men, who took it gingerly.  “Well, it appears I’m stuck here for a while longer.” He patted Dev on the shoulder.  “Let me go see what the old man wants.”

He turned and left the outer lock, passing through the inner corridors and disappearing as the rest of them watched him go.

“You said he was a scientist?”  Jason asked, quizzically.

“He is a scientist.” Dev said. “He programmed me.” She added, after a brief pause.

“Huh.” Jess’s brows twitched. “That might explain a few things.”

“What?” Jason looked at her.

“Never mind.”  Jess exhaled.  “Well, they got us good, that’s for sure. Never had the guts to go for our bay before.”

“You pissed them off.”

A cleanup team was removing the enemy bodies, zipping them into bags and latching the bags to the weight carrier they’d brought with them.  Technicians were moving aside the destroyed console, and someone else was erecting a set of temporary lights in the corner. 

A squad of security showed up, with a portable blast barrier they started to set up to close the gaping hole in the wall

Stephen shook his head. “That was ballsy.” He regarded the outer door. “We’ll need to keep the inside seal on until they get that rebuilt.”  He glanced at Jess. “You think it’s their way of sending a message back for what you did?”

Jess shrugged. “Stupid if it was.  Besides, you heard Kurok. He thinks they were after him.” She said. “And I wouldn’t say he’s wrong.” She added.  “C’mon Dev. Let’s go get breakfast now that all the fun’s over.”

“That was fun?”  Dev straightened out of her jumpsuit, twisted askew from her crawling on the floor. “I think I liked being chased by all those planes better.”

Brent snorted. “Score.”

“Yeah, well, let’s get chow before the old man blows up.” Jason joined them “Not gonna be a happy day.”

Dev entered her rad station, her book tucked under her arm as she paused to review the space in front of her.

She liked it.  The room was low ceilinged, and cozy, with translucent couches and chairs and towards the back, what Jess had explained to her was a meditation space that was lit in a soft blue light and had a padded floor to sit on.

She put her book down on the table and went to the small closet in the wall.   She removed her boots and her jumpsuit, and put them inside, feeling the faint movement of air against her bare skin as she went to the control panel. 

She put her palm on it.  After a second, it chimed.  “Name.” A soft voice asked.

Dev studied it for a minute. “Dev.” She pronounced.

The system digested that. “NM-Dev-1?”

“Yes.” 

“This system will code your presence recording you as “Dev”.” The voice said.  “Stand by for scan please.” 

Dev waited, and felt the tickle over her skin as the system reviewed her body.  This felt totally normal to her, and she remained still, breathing easily.  “This is my first experience.”  She said, after a pause.

“Acknowledged.” The voice answered. “This session will consist of one standard hour. Advise this system if you experience any difficulty, or if discomfort results.”

“Yes.”  Dev agreed. “Thank you.”

Talking to machines was often easier than talking to people.  Dev felt the light change, and she felt faint warmth on her skin as the rad came on and bathed her.   There was something in the quality of it that made her smile and she walked into the space with the chairs and picked her book up, sitting down on one of the couches and leaning back.

Jess was working on the mission plan, and she suggested that Dev get her rad in and that she’d come get her when she was ready to go over what they were going to do.  That seemed like a good idea to her, and now she was content to relax in the light, enjoying the warmth and the soft sound of the machinery around her.

In the crèche, there never was an issue about getting sunlight.  It came and went constantly, and you could always count on catching some in the dining hall, or the gym, or just in the halls while you were waiting for a class.

And, of course, in the sleep pods as they rotated up along the rim of the crèche they were exposed to the sun as the covers turned translucent and so, she’d never had to think about it before.

Here, she did. Dev stretched her legs out on the couch. She wondered what people outside the citadel did, and made a mental note to ask Jess about it later.  

She set her book down and folded her hands over her bare stomach, thinking about the attack they’d suffered in the morning.  It had been scary for her.  She had felt a little like she and Brent were more of a hindrance than a help and it bothered her a lot that there hadn’t been anything she could do to help Jess at all.

If they had been ordered to launch – then there would have been good work for her.  But they had bypassed the hangar deck when they went into the last curve and then all she and Brent could do is stay on the ground and hope they didn’t get blasted.

Brent had even talked to her about it.  Commiserated with her.   Dev had felt sort of good about that, since it was the first time the tech had even spoken to her outside ship com.  She’d even walked back to the dining hall at his side and it hadn’t really felt uncomfortable.

That was nice. She didn’t want the others to feel bad all the time around her.   Dev studied the calm, dim room.   She would finish her rad, she decided, and then maybe go do some work in the gym.  Maybe by then, Jess would have her plan all worked out.

Jess slowly sat down at her desk, grimacing a little as her back protested.  The spot where she’d been stabbed had ended up slamming against a door handle in all the tumult and she’d felt a sharp spear of pain that at the time, she’d ignored.

Now, it was throbbing, and the jolts of pain were going up her spine and through her neck and giving her a banging headache.

She should go to med.   Jess glowered at the screen in front of her, and rested her forearms on the desk, debating the issue with herself in silence. 

If she went to med, she’d be stuck there. They’d ground her again.  Jess studied her twined fingers. Before she hadn’t really cared that much, after Joshua she’d been more than glad not to be under any pressure either to take a new partner on or go out in the field.

It had been all right, to her, to step down after she’d gotten back from the failed mission, spending her time either curled up in bed convalescing or out on the ledge, just watching the sea.  It had been a long time – hell, it had been since her entrance into field school since she’d taken a break and just let life run past her for a while.

Now?  Jess exhaled slowly.  Now, after Bain showed up, and she’d gotten promoted, going offline wasn’t really her first option.   Bain wanted her to take care of this problem, and she had a feeling if she did, there might be more in it for her than he was letting on.

Now things were exciting and good things were happening.  Bricker was gone and she saw an opportunity for her to really get herself ahead.

And then there was Dev.  Jess pondered her new pilot.  Dev the surprisingly skilled.  Dev the surprisingly courageous.  If she went offline, Bain would surely put her in team with someone else, so as not to lose those significant skills and then what?

Would any of the other agents treat Dev the way she had?  No one really liked the idea of the bio alt, especially now that she’d proven herself more than useful.  They’d probably find away to get her into an ‘incident’.

She didn’t want anything bad to happen to Dev.   Jess relaxed a little, and felt the pain ease.  She wanted to keep on working with Dev and have her be part of the success she could feel out there ahead of them, just outside her reach.

So going to med was out.   Jess very slowly sat back.  Then she got to her feet and went over to the big cabinet, opening it up and fishing inside her gear pack for one of the packets of analgesic she’d stored in there.  She got one out and opened it, then swallowed the tabs down with a quick, dry gulp.

“Now what?” She mused. The idea of sitting at her desk made her grimace, so she went over and picked up the info pad, carrying it with her as she slowly climbed the steps up into her relaxation area and adjusted the flexible couch, stretching out on it on her stomach and setting the pad on the shelf at the head of it so she could see the screen.

It wasn’t entirely comfortable, but it wasn’t entirely uncomfortable and she’d gotten used to the position as her back had started to heal once they’d let her out of the hospital. She settled herself and keyed the pad controls; calling up the mission plan she’d started to work on.

It would be a tough run.   She studied the layout of the laboratory.  There would be no getting in there any easy way, especially after their attack yesterday.   She could see the bounce backs showing multiple layers of scan and as they themselves would be, figured the lab and all the outer defenses would be on a very heightened alert.

So.

Jess studied the intel report on the lab.   Approach from the air wouldn’t work.  She zoomed in on the facility, realizing after a minute that the latest sim scans were based on digital input that probably came from her carrier. 

From their carrier.  She watched the replay, remembering that long dive and the feel of heavy G’s on her as Dev made the old bus stand up and really shake its booty.

Jess smiled, and then went back to studying the screen.

The lab was buried into granite promontory.  The defenses were hardened, and she watched the scan as a transport arrived, going through several layers of security before it was allowed to dock on an isolated landing pad, the muzzles of heavy blasters visible surrounding it.

She watched as guards came out and inspected the transports manifest, and then, the pilot was remanded back inside and a troop of unfriendlies came out to offload whatever the contents or people were.

No easy way in that route.

Jess studied the promontory.  If the facility was anything like the one she was in, though, there were infrastructure components she might be able to take advantage of.    She knew that they had to generate power and feed themselves not too differently than Interforce did, that the granite cliffs likely held the caverns full of phosphorescent organisms, the ultraviolet lit growing platforms, the captive fisheries, the rakers of seaweed or else some form of equivalent technology to let them feed themselves and create the power needed to run the scientific technology.

She tapped a request into the pad and waited for a response, her body slowly relaxing as the pain medication took effect.    As she tapped on the edge of the shelf her mind drifted, and she found herself wondering what Dev was up to.

That puzzled her. Why would she care? Why should she care?  Jess frowned, but nevertheless, she keyed over to the locator and tapped in Dev’s name.  After a brief pause, the locator came back with a coordinate, and she grunted, satisfied her pilot had taken her advice and gone to rad.

Hm.

The thought of the warm glow suddenly sidetracked her, and after a pause, she got up off the couch and took the pad with her, easing down the steps and crossing over to where she’d left her indoor boots.

Putting them on, she went to the door and through it, heading for the rad area through sparsely populated halls.   Why not get a dose of rad herself? It had been several days, after all, and she could just as well go over the plans flat on her stomach in her dose room where at least she’d get something useful out of her time while she waited for the intel to come back.

The drugs had made the pain bearable.  It remained as a dull throbbing, but at a level where she could put it aside, and it didn’t affect her moving and walking.  Even her headache had faded a little and she sighed in relief as she passed through the central corridor and turned right down into rec.

A good portion of the citadel was at the attack site, either cleaning up, or taking readings, making reports, developing plans to prevent it from happening again and there was no one there to see her arrive at her door, putting her palm on the lock and passing inside.

Once the door shut, she paused, and stood there thinking.

Time was of essence.  Jess reasoned. Why not get even more done at the same time?   She walked over to the com and typed in a code.  After she heard a faint buzz, she leaned closer. “Dev?”

There was a brief pause, and then the buzz stopped. “Yes?” Dev’s voice came back.  “I’m here in the sun space, as you suggested.”

Jess nodded to herself. “I’m in mine.” She said. “Mind if I join you? I want to go over the plan.”

There was another brief pause. “I don’t mind.”  Dev responded. “That would be nice. It’s sort of making me want to go to sleep in here.”

“Yeah. It does that.” Jess said. “Be there in a sec.”  She released the com and turned, leaving her space and walking the short distance down the corridor to the one assigned to her pilot.   She put her palm on the lock and the door opened, letting her inside.

She paused in the antechamber, setting her pad down and glanced into the main section.  Dev was relaxing on one of the couches and for a moment Jess felt a little lightheaded and short of breath.  “Damn drugs.” She muttered. “How do you like this?” She added, in a louder voice.

“It’s nice.” Dev responded. “It feels nice, though it’s different than being in the real sun.”

‘Is it?”  Jess stripped out of her jumpsuit and inhaled sharply, as an injudicious motion sent a bolt of pain through her shoulder.  She waited for the pain to ease, and then she folded the suit up and put it on a shelf, and added her boots to it.  “What’s the sun like?”

“Well.”  Dev turned her head as Jess entered, and their eyes met.  “It’s.. um.. a lot brighter for one thing.” She said, after a pause to clear her throat.  “When it comes into the crèche, all the regular lights go off, and it’s just… it’s different.”

“Mm.” Jess eased slowly down on the chair next to the lounge Dev was on. “So it’s..  I remember reading that it was yellow.”

Dev shook her head briefly. “In space, it’s white.” She said. “It feels good.” She looked up at the ceiling. “This feels good too, but not the same way.”  She looked back over at Jess. “It’s too dark to read from.” She held up her book.

Jess let herself be distracted. “What is that?”  She pointed at it.

“It’s a book.”  Dev said, with a touch of hesitation.  “You have them here, right?”

“We have them, but.. they’re on plas.”  Jess peered at it. “Can I see it?”

Dev passed it over to her. “One of my teachers gave it to me.”

Jess put her pad down and touched the book, opening it and running her fingertips over it.  The pages were thin, and an odd scent came off them as she peered at the writing.  It was, as Dev had said, too dim to really read it, but she could make sense of the words if she concentrated on them.

Dev sat quietly, watching her.   Jess’s head was bent over the book as it was cradled in her hands, one elbow leaning on the chair arm with her legs tucked up half under her.

The brown sigils were very visible on her arms, but now that Dev could see all of her, she could see the scars there too scattered over her skin and she thought about how much all of that must have hurt.

Jess was tall, and she had long bones. She had wide shoulders but you could see a lot of her skeleton under her skin though there tough sinew there too.   There was one long scar from her right knee to her ankle on the inside of her leg that made Dev grimace just to see it.

She had gotten badly hurt only once.  She’d been in the null grav gym and there had been a malfunction, and she’d fallen two stories on top of one of the agility systems and broken her leg.

The pain had been incredible.  She’d been very glad she’d passed out and woken up in the medical center, her leg already set and muzzy with painkilling drugs.  “I’ve read it a hundred times.” Dev said, into the silence that had built around them. “I find something new every time.”

Jess looked up from the book and smiled.  “I haven’t read one of these since I was very small.” She handed the book back. “And I’ve never read this one.” She glanced at the cover. “Lord of the Rings.”

“Would you like to borrow it?” Dev asked. “It’s really a good story.”

“Later.”  Jess agreed. “I’d love to.” She shifted and reached for the pad, halting in midmotion and closing her eyes, then opening them and exhaling. “Don’t think I’m going to get  a chance to read it in the next couple days.”  She lifted the pad and triggered it. “Here’s the deal.”

Dev put the book down and leaned on the arm of the lounge she was on, studying the pad. After a moment though, she looked up at Jess’s face, surprised to see some tension there.   One long hand was tangled in her hair holding her head up, as the other tapped the pad, and there was an awkwardness about her posture.

“So,  this is what we’re gonna do, if the intel comes back.” Jess said. “This is the edge of the Greenland islands.  That’s’ where the fishing fleets work out of.”

“I see.” Dev murmured.

“Tough place, but.. “ Jess tapped the screen.  “I’ve got some remote family here, and we can cross over into enemy territory here, in this little group where they all trade together.”

Dev nodded. “How does that assist us?”

“These boats, they trade with the bad guys.”  Jess drew a line on the screen. “I’m going to get taken onboard as a mate, and get into the lab that way, when they go to trade fish to them.”

Dev considered that. “I see.”

“What I’ll need you to do is hide out there, and keep com open, then come get my ass out of there after I finish the job.” Jess said. “Got it?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Depends.” Jess said. “If I can steal the tech, I will. If not, I’ll destroy it.” She studied the pad, and then looked up her pilot. “I’d rather steal it. Then we get the benefit.”

“This sounds difficult.”  Dev commented. “What if they find out who you are? Will they be angry?” She watched Jess shift a little; setting the pad down and leaning back in the chair, as the warm, purple light bathed her.

“Chances are, they will find out, and sure, they’ll be angry.”  Jess said. “That’s part of the game.”  She studied her pilot.   Dev was stretched out on the couch, but there was a furrow in her brow and she looked a little perturbed.  “But the goal is to get this job done. It’s important to us, because if they take this technology forward, they could start reclaiming land and that means these skirmishes we do might turn into something a lot bloodier.”

Dev’s head cocked to one side a bit. 

“There aren’t enough of us left to have a war, Dev.”  Jess said, after a long silence between them. “But livable land means more people and more resources, and then they will have enough bodies to have a war with and we won’t.”

“This is going to sound kind of foolish.. or maybe ignorant.” Dev said, slowly. “But wouldn’t it be more productive to cooperate and assist everyone in making progress?”

Jess smiled faintly. “Yes, it would” She said. “But that’s not how we’re wired, Dev. “

“I see.”  The bio alt considered the statement.  “I will do my best to assist in the plan and achieve good results then.”  She said. “I hope you will achieve your goals safely.”

Jess sighed. “Yeah, me too.”  She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.  “We’ll have to do some trading in the islands and I’ll need to put together a cover.” She mused. “And make sure we can cover up that necklace of yours. That won’t work out there.”

‘Are there bio alts on the outside?” Dev asked. 

Jess shook her head.  “In the citadels, and in the admin centers, yes.  But not in the outlands. They don’t even know what a bio alt is.  I said cover it so they don’t cut your head off and try to steal it.”

Dev’s pale eyes widened.

Jess chuckled wryly. “Don’t worry. They can’t break into a carrier. Yet.”  She leaned back again, the pain having subsided into a mere dull throb again.   “I think this is going to work, Dev.  We’ve never hit them this way before, and I’ve got a lot of chances to back out if it looks like it’s going to crash and burn.”

“Have you ever done that?”

Jess looked over to find those interesting green eyes watching her, the faintest of smiles on Dev’s face.  “Done what, back out?”

“Yes.”

“No.” Jess grinned, rakishly. 

“I didn’t think so.”  Dev grinned back.   “I’ll do my best to take care of your ass, then.”

They both chuckled, and their eyes met, and after a moment, Jess looked down at her pad, and smiled. “I definitely feel safer now.”

Dev entered the gym feeling happy.  The big facility was nearly empty, and she went over to the changing area, finding the cabinet with her name on it and changing into the short jumper and shoes she found inside.

She wasn’t really sure why she was happy, but the rad session had been enjoyable, and she’d appreciated the fact that Jess had stopped to let her see the plan and talk to her about it.  It was very different than the rescue, and it had a lot of sneaky bits to it she found really interesting.

Jess had a clever mind.  She reminded Dev just a little of some of her favorite teachers in the crèche, who were always pushing her to look at things from different angles, so she could make good choices and not stick to one data source.

Jess seemed to like angles, too, and when she was being extra clever, she tended to smile a lot.

She liked that smile. Dev closed the cabinet and entered the exercise area, remembering what that looked like and feeling her face echo it as she crossed into the big space and paused to study it.

The gym was multi leveled, and had different sections intended for different purposes, including a climbing obstacle course, a running space, a load bearing area and, to her surprise since she hadn’t seen it when Jess showed her the gym, a huge tank of water.

As she watched, a tall man she didn’t know went over to the tank, and jumped into it, disappearing and then surfacing and starting to move along the top of the water using his arms and legs.  “Wow.”  Dev muttered to herself. “What’s that all about?”

“Huh?”

Dev turned to find Brent there, his body covered in sweat and a towel wrapped around his neck. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” She pointed at the tank.

Brent looked. “Oh. The pool” He said. “Yeah, it’s all right. If you like that sorta thing.”  He regarded the man in the tank. “I’m not much for swimming I sink like a rock.” He glanced at her. “You?”

Dev shook her head. “I’ve never done anything like that. Water was very precious in the crèche.”

“Huh.” The tech grunted. “You should ask Jess to teach you. She’s a fish.  She and some of the others go down into the tunnels and swim in the ocean down there. Crazy nuts.”

Dev sorted through that. “I might ask.” She said. “I like the shower thing in our quarters.” She said.  “Jess mentioned something about the water in the bottom of the citadel – she took me out to see the ocean before and I can’t really imagine going into that. It looked dangerous.”

Brent snorted. “It is dangerous but what the hell difference does that make to us? “ He said. “Everything we do is dangerous. Hell, Jess threw an antipersonnel mine in the damn hallway this morning. If it’d been keyed wrong, we’d all be dead.”

“The purple thing?”

Brent nodded.  “Keyed to our scan. But they get it wrong sometimes.”  He explained. “That’s why it killed those goons.  They aren’t us.”

Us.  Dev thought about that word.  “Yes.” She said. “I’m glad it worked out.”

Brent continued on his way to the changing room, and Dev turned and headed into the gym, looking around at the different things she could choose to do.   She was drawn towards the tank, though, and she walked over to it, kneeling at the side of it and putting her hand into the water curiously. The man who had been in it was gone, and now the surface was still, and quiet.

It was pleasant. Neither warm nor cold, and she tried to imagine being completely immersed in it.

She couldn’t, but she really wanted to, so without any further thought she jumped into the pool headfirst.

It was, without doubt, the weirdest feeling she’d ever had, as the water closed over her and she was caught in a swirl of it surrounding her, pushing and bubbling around her as she popped to the surface, her head breaking out of the liquid as she instinctively took a breath.

So weird. So strange.  Instinctively, Dev moved her arms as she started sinking under again, pushing against the water to keep her head up in the air.  She could feel the resistance against her motion, and she cupped her hands, moving her legs as well.

Experimentally, she stopped moving.  Sure enough, she immediately sank under the surface; glad she’d taken a breath before her head went under.   She opened her eyes, and felt the water sting against them, but also found to her delight that she could see after a fashion.

Then her chest started hurting, so she pushed with her hands again, and got back to the surface of the water, spluttering a little and shaking her head as she blinked the water out of her eyes. 

“Hey!” Brent rushed over.  “Are you nuts?”   He went to his knees at the edge of the tank and held his hand out. “Here! Grab on!”

“I’m all right.”  Dev waved her hands around to keep afloat.  “I just wanted to see what this was like.”  She pushed the water away from her and moved over to where Brent was kneeling.  “It’s nice.”

“You are crazy.”  Brent said. “They picked the right one of you to match with Jess. She’s crazy too.”  He sat down on the concrete floor as Dev got close enough to grab the edge of the tank.   “You coulda hit your head and drowned.”

Dev put both hands on the edge of the tank, holding herself still as her body drifted in the water.  It reminded her a little of being in null grav, but it felt completely different and of course it was a lot wetter.   “Well, you said it didn’t really matter, didn’t you?” She said. “That we all do dangerous things all the time?”  She looked up at him and grinned.

With a shake of his head, Brent stood up.  “Well, be careful.  Last thing we need is for one of us to go and get hurt.  There aren’t many of us left.”  He studied her for a moment more, and then he retreated back toward the dressing room, his head still shaking gently as he walked.

Us.  Dev exhaled slowly.  It seemed that Brent, at least, had decided to accept her presence and that felt very nice. She was glad.  She released the edge of the tank and moved her hands around again, leaning forward and stroking forward in a somewhat awkward motion.

It did move her, though, and she kept at it for a few minutes, until she became a little more accustomed to it, edging forward not exactly gracefully but at least with some good effect.

The water itself felt wonderful.   She could feel it moving against her skin, and it smelled like the shower did, rich and wet and interesting.     With a good deal of effort, she finally reached the far end of the tank, and discovered it wasn’t as deep there and she could actually stand with her feet on the bottom and have her head stick up from the surface.

That was even better. She could fully appreciate the nice way the pressure of the water moved against her without having to worry about inadvertently breathing in the liquid.  She knew the man who she’d seen in the tank was doing something different, and decided she would look up this whole swimming thing when she got back to her quarters to see if the systems had any information on it.

She bobbed there for a minute or so more, then she found the steps that led out of the tank and climbed up them, emerging up onto the concrete and feeling an immediate chill as the air hit her.  She heard footsteps approaching and turned, to find Sandy and her partner Todd approaching.  “Hello.”

Sandy ignored her and just walked past. Todd gave her a brief nod, lifting one hand in a faint wave as he followed her. 

Dev regarded them in mild curiosity.  

“Don’t pay any attention to her.”

Dev turned to find Jason standing there. “Oh, hello.” She said. “I wasn’t really.”

The tall, muscular agent had just finished his exercise, and he, like Brent had been, was covered in sweat.  “Jess around?”

Dev shook her head. 

Jason studied her. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I jumped in there.” Dev pointed at the tank. “I liked it.”  She ran her fingers through her wet hair. “I think I should probably go put on a dry shirt though and continue my work.”   She gently circled him and headed for the dressing space.

“Hey.” Jason jogged after her and caught up.  “So what kind of gym work do you do up in space?”

“Well.” Dev took a towel from a shelf as they passed and dried her face off with it. “It’s not like this.  You do running, or walking, jumping, picking things up.. things like that, but they adjust the grav so it’s harder.”

“Huh?”  Jason frowned.  “What do you mean?”

They were passing the sets of pull up bars and hanging swings and Dev paused, then she went over to the bars and glanced up at them, drying her hands and putting the towel down. “Like this.” She jumped a little, and caught the bar, adjusting her hold and then pausing a moment before she pulled herself up so that her chin was even with the bar.

“Okay, so we do that too.”  Jason had his arms folded, and was watching her.

“Then we do this.” Dev hoisted herself up, pressing her body up over the bar, and then carefully lifting herself up into a handstand.  She held the position briefly, and then she let her body fall over, swinging under the bar and then releasing it as she came up again, turning in mid air and catching it again and pressing herself back up into a handstand.

“Ah.”  Jason muttered.

Dev lowered herself until her shoulders touched the bar, then pushed herself back up again. Then she fell forward again, releasing the bar and landing neatly with both feet planted.  “But they change the grav, so sometimes you’re normal, like now, and sometimes you go up to two, or three, or when they want to really work you very hard, to four G’s.”

Jason stared at her. “Are you kidding me? He finally asked. “They work you under  4 g’s? “

“Not that much, it’s too hard.” Dev admitted. “And not what I just did. You can get really hurt. But just walking around, and sometimes carrying things.”

“Holy shit.”

Dev wasn’t sure what to make of that reaction.  “Mostly it’s 2 g.” She said. “It makes gym shorter too. I’m going to have to work hard here to match what I did in the crèche.” She made a little face. “The last gym I did before I came here was the hardest. They had me to a whole round in 3g’s and I was really tired when I was finished.”

“Holy shit.”

Dev managed a brief grin. “Excuse me.” She turned and headed into the changing area, going over to her little cubicle and stripping quickly out of the wet exercise suit so she could exchange it for a dry one.   She toweled off her skin and changed, and then she headed back out into the gym to find some good work to do.

Jess studied the met data, bracing one arm against the console as she overlaid her situational map over it.  Two tightly lined whorls intersected their flight plan and she grimaced, moving the met prediction ahead until they cleared. “Well. Shit.”

“What’s that, Drake?”  The meteorological officer glanced at her.

“Fucking storms biting my ass again.” Jess sighed.  “Are they getting worse or is it just my natural pessimism rearing its head?”

The met officer came around the desk and studied her plotting.  “Has been bad up there this year.” He agreed. “I was just talking to Mort earlier over lunch and he said the same thing you just did, storms are getting worse and more often.”

“Mm.”  Jess coded the data to her pad and straightened up cautiously.  “Well, puts me on ice for a few days. We can’t fly into that.”

“Yeah? I heard your hotshot new pilot could fly that shuttle to the moon and back.” The man said.  “That’s the rumor, anyway, from the mechs.”

“Yeah?” Jess regarded him. 

“Heard them talking in the mess.” The man said. “They saw the mission logs from your last run and there’s a lot of lip flapping on it.”

“Dev did a kickass job.” Jess said. “Surprised the hell out of me, as much as anyone else. “

“That make you nervous?” The met officer asked. “Maybe they can replace you with a sim slot?”

Jess studied him.

“Just a thought.”

Jess smiled briefly. “Who knows?” She picked up the pad and gave him a brief wave. “Later.”

“Later.”

Jess left the met office and walked along the hall, trying not to acknowledge how much a sense of relief she was feeling at having to postpone the mission for a few days.  She considered that as she walked, reasoning that it probably was good because it gave her back a chance to heal up a little, and she could make sure all the repairs were done to the shuttle.

Two good reasons.  She nodded to herself.  Perfectly legit reasons.  Nothing to do with any reluctance on her part to go back out in the field.

Nothing like that at all.  She had no control over the weather, after all, now did she?   Besides, it would give her time to work on her cover, and get her plan all nice and settled before she and Dev went haring off into the wild outside.

That was Fate talking, she was sure of it.  She’d been doing this long enough to know that when all the odds started stacking up against you, that was the world warning you that you were pointing in the wrong direction and ignoring that never led to good things.

Last time she’d done it, had been her last mission with Joshua.  Her gut instinct had been humming like crazy on that one but she just hadn’t had the guts to stand up and say so, and scrub the mission. Not with Bricker’s strident insistence on the importance of the raid, and her own arrogance and ego shoving aside her doubts.

Stupid. Very stupid of her.  Jess exhaled. Stupid with a trending to deadly.

“Drake.”

Jess turned and waited, as Alexander Bain appeared from nowhere and caught up to her. “Sir.”  She greeted him quietly.  “I was just in met.” She added, unobtrusively scanning the area for listening ears.

“Not good, I take it?, hm,?”  Bain studied her.

“Looks like plus 2 days to go.” Jess said.  “There are two tornadic mega storms coming over between now and then.” She paused, and waited, watching those cold gray eyes dissect her.

“Hmm.  That’s bad.” Bain said. “However, on the positive side, you will be present for the incoming ceremony tomorrow night. “ He added,  “So not all is negative. I very much wanted you and your new colleague to be there when this new class comes in.   This scientific raid can wait the few days – in fact, if it solidifies their findings, better for us.”

Jess nodded, feeling a sense of relief shiver through her muscles. “Let them get the bugs out before we steal it.”  She suggested.

“Exactly.” The old man smiled briefly. “And perhaps it will keep the enemy off our doorstep.”  Bain frowned. “Shocking, they made it past all the scans isn’t it?” He watched her intently.

‘Very shocking.” Jess agreed. “They must have gotten very lucky.”

“Hm.”

Jess’s lips twitched, and she quickly scanned the hallway again, finding it still empty. “Or someone wasn’t watching.”

“Hm.”

“Or someone was deliberately keeping quiet.”

Bain leaned against the wall, his spare frame barely seeming to cast a shadow. “Does it seem likely to you that they could have gotten in here with no warning, and no storm to cover their tracks?”

“No.”

“And yet it seems that the logs for the hour preceding their arrival have somehow become lost, making it impossible for us to ascertain exactly what we knew, when we knew it.”

Jess stared at him, her body stiffening.  “That doesn’t happen without leaving fingerprints somewhere.” She finally said.

“Hm.”  Bain tilted his head slightly. “Troubling times, Agent Drake.” He unfolded his arms and straightened up.  “And quite dangerous, perhaps, to those of interest.” He added. “So keep an eye on your new colleague, hmm?  I wouldn’t want anything untoward to happen to that charming girl.”

“I will.” Jess said, in a quiet tone. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to her either.” She added. “She’s all right.”

“Yes.” Bains’ eyes met hers, and he smiled, just a little. “And I will keep my eye on her creator.  Though I am sure he would be extremely irritated to hear me say that”

“He’s a pretty good shot.”  Jess commented.  “He took out two of those guys.”

“Dan Kurok has quite a number of unusual skills.”  Bain agreed wryly. “Pity we need to get him back to the station before they blow up the citadel trying to find him, hmm?.” He pushed off the wall. “A good day to you, Drake. “

“Sir.”

He glanced back at her. “Do remember to keep your options open.”

Jess watched him go, as she replayed his words in her head.  Then she frowned, and turned on her heel, heading across the hallway towards the gym.

Continued in Part 7

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