Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  “I did,” Jess said. “Just like I killed a whole lot of the people you brought with you. So we’re both responsible for a lot of blood today, huh?”

  The man exhaled, all the anger drained out of him.

  “So we all lost,” Jess continued, in a grim sort of tone. “But maybe some got lucky. You’re going to get taken out on a flyer and see if there are any left. If there are, I’ll turn over what he promised you.”

  He stared at her.

  “What’s your name?” Jess asked, after a moment of silence.

  “Don’t got one,” he mumbled.

  Three men in overalls appeared at the opening, carrying a stretcher. They looked at Jess for permission and then entered when she nodded. One of them paused as they got the stretcher arranged and looked back at Jess, giving her a little nod back.

  “So,” Jess said. “Get someone who can pilot a skid and take this guy out. Get me a count.” She stared hard at Jake until he shook himself and scrambled out of the carrier, stepping gingerly over his brother’s outstretched legs.

  The bearers followed him, taking Jimmy’s body out with them, replaced by two other bearded, pony tailed figures, who wore raggedly woven flight jackets. “Need some wings, Drake?” The nearer one said, in a deep and gravelly voice. “That the one there?”

  “Yeah.” Jess stepped back to make room for them. “Take him back to their camp, if there’s anything left of it. Need to know how many are out there.”

  “Got it.” The two of them untied the scavenger from the chair and pulled him upright, then carryed him out between them with little effort.

  Jess sighed and leaned against the wall. “What a mess.”

  April went to the door of the carrier and peered out, then she looked over at Jess, raising one hand and circling it. “That got props.”

  Dev eased up next to her and put a hand on her elbow. Jess took a breath then glanced down at her. “See?” she told Dev. “Toldja you should be glad you don’t have sibs.”

  Dev sorted through all the responses she could have to that and settled on what she hoped was the least offensive. “He was incorrect?”

  “Yes.”

  “I see.”

  “Families suck sometimes,” April said, with a humorless smile. “Mine does, too.”

  “That’s not my family,” Jess countered. “My family wears black and green. These are just people I share blood with who are more often just a huge pain in my ass.”

  April held up a hand. “Taken. But you were right about the cross. Word gets out you can’t trust a homestead, no one goes there.” She seated her blaster and put the safety back on. “That one felt sketch.”

  “Jimmy?”

  “Yeah.”

  Yeah. Jess straightened up. “Let’s close down and go get some chow and rest.” She glanced at the blaster April had holstered. “Keep that with you. I’m going to stop for mine. Screw the regs here.”

  April gave her a thumbs up, then she went to her rack and started adding to her hard points. Doug swiveled around and started shutting down the carrier.

  “C’mon, Dev.” Jess waved her toward the door. “Let’s see what three-day-old cod we’re going to get dumped on our heads next.”

  Chapter Three

  ALONE IN THEIR own carrier, Jess dropped into her seat and rocked back gently, her eyes going a little unfocused. “Set up a deep scan,” she said. “Alert on bio mass and energy.”

  “Yes.”

  Jess remained quiet for a few minutes. Then she turned her seat around a bit to face front. “Did that bug you, Dev?”

  Dev paused and turned in her seat. “Excuse me?”

  “What I did in there. That bother you?” Jess repeated, watching her face.

  “Oh. You mean when you made that person dead?”

  “Yeah.”

  Dev pondered that. “No,” she said, finally “I didn’t really understand what was going on. But my programming says the whole making dead thing is part of this work.”

  Jess tilted her dark head a bit. “The doc really knew what he was doing,” she said, in a slightly surprised tone. “He really got it. Takes some techs time to eject that stuff.”

  “Yes. He told me before he left the base that he, in fact, made someone dead because they had done incorrect things to your father,” Dev said, matter-of-factly. “And that he’d changed my programming to allow me to perform correctly if someone tried to do incorrect things to you.”

  Jess got up and came forward, crouching down next to her seat. She put her arms around Dev in an uncomfortable and awkward hug. “Thanks, Devvie. Despite everything, I do feel crappy about breaking my brother’s neck. Can’t take all of that out of us, I guess.”

  Dev had no idea what that feeling was, but hugging Jess was always excellent and so she tightened her grip. She felt the muscles in Jess’s face move as she smiled. “You’re so amazing,” she told Jess. “You do even the hardest things excellently.”

  Jess chuckled wryly. “Ah, Dev.” She reluctantly released her and backed off a little so she could look at Dev. “Something’s going on here. Maybe that was part of it. Keep your eyes open and don’t trust anything here. If I didn’t have enemies before, I damn sure do now.”

  “Because of making that man dead?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I see.” Dev reached up to brush the hair out of Jess’s eyes. “So more people might be incorrect?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Suboptimal,” Dev said. “I will try to make sure no one is attempting to make you dead, Jess,” she added in a serious tone. “I don’t want that.”

  Jess leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. “No, me neither.” She braced her hands on the chair and kissed Dev again, feeling the welcome gentleness of the touch of Dev’s hand on her cheek, and the even more welcome burn in her guts.

  It flushed out the odd regret and brought her a welcome warmth that allowed her to put aside the discomfort. She eased forward as they continued to explore each other, safe in the confines and privacy their carrier provided.

  IT WAS VERY dark outside and raining, the thunder audible through the bay door as Jess and Dev walked along the flight line toward the inner corridor.

  “Hungry?” Jess asked.

  “Yes, actually.” Dev had her jacket on and her scanner over her shoulder, having sent the memory contents into the carrier’s systems. “The meal before was excellent.”

  Jess scanned the area around them as they walked, the caverns mostly empty now save a few techs working on flyers. “Yeah, grubs not bad here.” She reached up and touched her comms as it beeped. “Go ahead.”

  “All’s quiet,” April reported into her ear. “Looks like there’s about thirty some of those scroungers left.”

  Out of probably a hundred fifty, according to Dev’s count. “They giving them rations?”

  “Yes. No one seems eager to go against your orders.” April’s tone was definitely amused. “We secured the area they gave us and we’re heading to dinner, if that fits your plans.”

  “Does,” Jess said. “Meet you there.” She clicked off, and they started up the stairs side by side, climbing up past the second level to the third and moving into the hallway where the echo of voices gathered to eat could be heard.

  So far they hadn’t met anyone, and Jess took a breath and straightened her shoulders before they cleared the entrance and paused, looking for April and Doug.

  The sound level immediately decreased, registering with Jess just as she spotted the other ops team at a table on the left hand side near the wall.

  She fought the urge to flinch a little as all those eyes, and all that attention, fastened on her, and she let her hand rest on the grip of her blaster as she walked between the tables. She swung her head from side to side to meet the stares.

  Dev walked quietly behind her, lifting her scanner in one hand and adjusting it, coming up short and stopping as someone rose in front of Jess and got in her way.

  “Drake.”


  “Yes?”

  Dev edged to one side to see who was holding them up. She saw April start to come toward them, and then Jess lifted her hand and made a sign, and April halted and retreated back to the table where Doug was seated.

  The man in the way was as tall as Jess, but had curly red hair and interesting freckles on his face. “What’s the score with you?”

  Jess smiled a little. “C’mon, Ben. Ask at the table, we’re hungry.” She started forward and gave him the choice of moving along with her or being slammed into.

  For a moment, she thought he was going to stand in place and let her hit him. But at the very last minute he turned aside and then started walking with them, now part of the focus from all the other eyes around them.

  April had seated herself next to Doug, and they both stood as Jess arrived. “They told us they’d bring trays around,” she said.

  “They will.” Jess took a seat at the head of the table and patted the left hand side, where Dev slid into place. “Sit,” she told Ben, pointing to the last chair. “You elected?” she asked him. “April, Doug, Dev, this is Ben. He’s one of the operations managers in the power station here.”

  “You remembered,” Ben said. “I’m flattered.” He glanced at Dev then looked back at Jess. “So what’s your deal? You staying here? We heard you made some domestic rearrangements after the fight before.”

  Some of the workers came around and put down bowls of some liquid substance, smaller empty bowls for them, and a platter of pressed seaweed cakes.

  Jess waited for the motion to end then she put her elbows on the table, lacing her fingers together. “I’m active ops service,” she said. “Interforce is working on straightening the paperwork all out.”

  Ben studied her. “But...you going to council for us though?”

  She nodded. “Tell everyone to relax. Jimmy skunked us and paid for it. I’m just going to keep things clean until they can get me out of this.”

  Ben ladled himself a bowl of soup, then handed around the utensil. “Okay.” He picked up the smaller bowl and drank directly from it. “But there’s a wide range of opinions on all that. Know what I mean?” He produced a brief grin. “A lot of us miss Justin.”

  Ah. Jess merely shrugged a little, but smiled back. “I miss him,” she said after a pause.

  “It was good to be able to talk to someone who just knew.”

  Ben nodded silently.

  Jess dipped herself a bowl and then paused before she put it down in front of Dev instead. “There ya go Devvie, before you start chewing the table.” She handed her a cake. “I know all that super star driving makes ya hungry.”

  “Thank you,” Dev replied with a brief grin. “Other activities also,” she added, before taking a bite of the pressed seaweed and chewing it.

  This brought a rakish smile to Jess’s face as she dipped herself a bowl before handing off the ladle to April.

  Ben was staring at Dev and she returned the look mildly until his eyes shifted back to Jess, then she inspected the bowl. It smelled of the substance she’d experienced as mushrooms back at base, and a spoonful of it proved quite delicious.

  “So is that her?” Ben asked.

  Dev put her spoon down and extended a hand. “Hello. Yes, I’m NM-Dev-1, the operations technician assigned to Agent Drake.” She waited for him to reluctantly extend a hand back. “And also, a biological alternative who was born from an egg in space.”

  He gripped her hand and released it. “No way,” he said and shook his head. “You’re no bio.”

  Doug chuckled, but remained focused on his soup.

  “Yes, way.” Dev went back to her own bowl. She looked up as footsteps approached to find her unexpected visitor, Chris, coming over. He was wearing a sling, holding one arm close to his body. He circled them and grabbed a chair from a nearby table.

  “Hey.” He studied them. “Move over greenies.” He squeezed the chair in between them as Dev moved closer to Jess and Doug to April. “I want to have dinner with my new friend, Rocket.”

  Now they had pretty much the attention of most of the people around them. Chairs turned around and all pretense at looking elsewhere abandoned.

  Chris got himself settled and reached for the ladle, handling it a bit awkwardly. “Agree with Benny there though. Ain’t no bio.” He looked at Dev. “No offense intended, ma’am.”

  Dev politely held his bowl until he finished pouring into it. Then she casually undid the fastenings at her neck and opened her suit up, exposing the chased gold and tracing of her collar. “No, really. I am,” she said, in a matter-of-fact tone. “The NM and the Dev stand for new model, developmental.”

  It went a little quiet and she was able to continue consuming her soup, which she did after fastening her suit back up.

  “Holy shit,” Chris said, after a moment.

  “That’s what we all said,” Doug added, unexpectedly. “Serious rock star.”

  Jess cleared her throat. “Can we get through dinner?” she asked, making a pushing back motion with her hand. “Food can’t get here.”

  People eased back so the servers could get to them, but the attention didn’t diminish. “M’kay.” Chris studied his seatmate with interest. “Someone made some hella breakthrough then. Cause you ain’t no jelly bag brain.”

  “No, I’m not,” Dev said, observing the platters now landing on the table. “Oh, Jess! Those are shrimps!”

  “I knew I came to the table armed for a reason,” Jess drawled. “Nice!”

  “What are those?” April asked, curiously.

  The circular pink animals were swiftly divided, and Dev was glad to see she’d gotten a sizable portion of them for herself. She smelled the spicy scent coming off them, just the same as in Quebec. “They’re shrimp,” she told April. “We had them on one of our first missions.”

  “Quebec?” Chris asked. “Jontons?”

  Jess nodded. “Had to convince her not to eat the shells.” She leaned back a little in her seat, letting her peripheral vision take in the scene and analyze it, watching the range of reactions to the bio alt in their midst.

  Big mix. Chris’s acceptance had helped, though, the senior operations tech at the stakehold carried both acknowledged and unacknowledged status. He’d gone through field school up to the point of pairing then backed out.

  Some said, flunked out. Jess had never bothered to find out either way. So he knew Interforce, and didn’t, enough to be skeptical but not enough to lose the inbred respect for the service that was a commonplace at the Bay.

  Dev picked up a shrimp and twisted it’s head off. She looked past Chris to where April was watching her. “You suck the heads out,” she said knowledgeably, reversing the head and putting it to her lips and inhaling sharply.

  The expected goo hit her tongue, and she mouthed it before she swallowed, finding it a little different than at Jontons but just as delicious. “It’s good.”

  April imitated the motion, her head jerking back a little as the substance entered her mouth. Then her brows contracted. “Wow,” she said after swallowing. “That’s the most bizarre thing I’ve eaten since Polar base.”

  Doug was already ripping the legs off one of his. “Landies.” He sighed, shaking his head.

  Everyone chuckled, and the energy around the table eased slowly, the sound of discussion just as slowly rising around them. Jess sucked a shrimp head out, casually letting her eyes drift around the surrounding crowd.

  Some were still watching Dev, and she watched them carefully, but discerned more curiosity than animosity there. Good sign. She bit into the shrimp’s body as the tension in her guts retreated, able to enjoy the spicy taste.

  “You were at Polar?” Ben asked April. “Thought it was long closed?”

  “Was,” April said. “We recommissioned it.”

  “Dev recommissioned it,” Doug reminded her. “We were just there to boost the batteries and keep the snow off her head.”

  “That is not accurate at all,” Dev disagreed i
mmediately. “Everyone participated.”

  Everyone’s eyes shifted to Jess. “She’s right,” Jess said. “Even me. I picked the lock on the front door.” She divested another shrimp of it’s head. “They had some crazy old freeze drieds in there. We ate ’em.”

  “Can’t even imagine,” Ben said, with a more relaxed smile.

  “They even had coffee,” Doug said. “That was weird.” He held up a shrimp. “This is way better.”

  Chris was managing his meal one handed, and he bit the head off a shrimp. “Love to see that.” He put the body down and prepared to suck the head. “You keeping it open?” He looked over at Jess. “After all the craziness?”

  Jess merely nodded. “Keeping a lot of options open,” she said. “We rode the edge up there.”

  Ben leaned on the chair arm nearest her. “We figured when we got the alert from you,” he said, his voice now serious. “We halfway expected to become Base Eleven.”

  There was a moment of silence. Then April spoke up. “No.” She studiously ripped the shell off a shrimp. “Wasn’t going to let that happen.” She glanced up. “No one at Ten was. Everyone got all in that, mechs, techs, bios.”

  “Scientists from the bio station,” Doug added, with a slight twinkle.

  “Doctor Dan was amazing and brave,” Dev said. “But no one was more amazing than...mmfp.” She looked up in surprise as Jess covered her mouth with one hand, and the rest of the people around the table started laughing.

  “We heard you got the star, Jess,” Ben said, waving a shrimp head at her. “C’mon, it’s props for us, too. You’re a Drake from Drake’s Bay, after all.”

  “The Drake right now,” Chris added. “Probably got half the legal between here and the coast shitting starfish over that.”

  Jess removed her hand from Dev’s mouth, aware of a wash of strong and complex emotion. A quick scan told her the hostility around her had faded and been replaced by something odd and unexpected.

  She’d done something right here. Jess lifted her cup and in response, cups lifted all around her, a touching of that dark and edgy energy she’d always been aware of, once grown, here at the Bay. A ferocity that rode just below the surface.