Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  “With you I never feel bored at all,” Dev reassured her. “No matter what we’re doing.”

  Jess grinned to herself. “Aww thanks, Devvie. Back atcha.”

  Dev slowed the forward momentum as they came in range of the other carrier. Doug backed off so they could see what the rookies found. There was a small outcropping of rock, and just past that, nestled behind the ridge, was a compact craft.

  She scanned it warily, one hand on the throttles in case the object decided to react to the energy sweep. “This is a model 245B, standard small transport,” Dev said.

  “Yeah.” Jess had the specs on her console. “New.”

  Dev backed and went sideways around the craft, giving Jess a 360-degree view. The transport had no energy readback, naturally, since it was supposed to be stealthed and invisible to common land based searchers.

  But not to airborne ones, and certainly not from Interforce craft. Jess checked the outline. “You getting anything from it?” she asked. “Get closer.”

  “No, nothing.” Dev cautiously lowered the carrier, watching her scanner intently. The transport was blended into the rock much like theirs would have been and as she got closer, she saw the energy return spike and abruptly boosted them back up, hitting the jets hard.

  Jess grabbed her restraints as they lifted. “What was that fo— oh crap.”

  “Ware!” April’s voice came through the tie line, urgent and sharp, and Jess felt the carrier jolt into motion, the mains cutting in and driving them up between the ridges toward the sky a moment before a blast hit them on their lower shields and drove them farther and faster upward.

  “The craft exploded,” Dev explained somewhat unnecessarily, since the outer screens were still awash with energy flare. “It sensed this vehicle, I think.”

  “Oh yeah.” Jess was recording everything, watching the shield power and damping the return. “Anything left?”

  Dev arched around and started down again, seeing the visual of the scorched rock and shattered bits scattered now over the ground. Where the transport had been was mostly rubble, and a few shards of twisted metal flung across the ridge. “I don’t think so.”

  Doug’s voice came through the comms. “Bugger blew up! Reminded me of those guys who were chasing us from the Pole.”

  Jess shook her head. “No. I’ve seen these do that. They’re programmed not to be found or searched, like ours are. If someone came near this thing and it knew it was one of them it would have blown up, too.”

  Dev glanced at her in the reflector. “With us in it?” she asked. “That might be suboptimal.”

  Jess chuckled. “No.” She finished her scanning. “Well, no sense in hanging around here. You two want to land and see if there’s anything to be found? We’re heading for the council.”

  “Will do,” April responded. “You don’t want an escort?”

  Jess paused, then exhaled. “They asked me not to cause a ruckus. It’s not that far. If we need backup, I’ll call. Till then watch everything.”

  “Got it.” April clicked off.

  Jess settled back in her seat. “Okay, Dev. Let’s go.”

  Dev recalibrated the route and turned the carrier in an arc, boosting up to rise past the mountain ridge that housed Drake’s Bay and continued further inland.

  Ahead of her the ground was craggy and uneven, bare mountains with valleys between them mostly filled with rock rubble, and sometimes water.

  It seemed vast and unfriendly. “Do people live here, Jess?”

  “Define live.” Jess watched the screens. “Nothing really to live on. Most of the scavengers live on the coast, picking up shore leavings that the processing center leaves behind. Or they hide in the hills and try to pick up scraps from places like the Bay.”

  “That sounds unpleasant.”

  “It is,” Jess said. “When I was going to bust out, I’d have ended up in one of the bunkers near the shore collecting seaweed and shellfish for the processing center. I might have gotten decent bunk room at the Bay though, since I am a Drake.”

  “I see.”

  Jess regarded the ceiling for a moment in silence. “Actually given what my dad did, I’d have gotten better than that, though I didn’t know it at the time. Woulda been a shocker for everyone, especially me.” She sighed. “Glad it worked out like it did though. I got to meet you.” She looked up to see Dev watching her in the reflector, a small, delighted smile on her face.

  Jess felt a little warm spot inside her seeing that. She winked at the reflection and saw Dev shift her attention somewhat guiltily back to the controls and suddenly had to wonder if spending some time at the Bay with Dev wasn’t going to end up being kind of okay.

  Since she didn’t have a choice anyway, right? Find a bright spot? Should she get them some better digs?

  Dev interrupted her musing, having spotted a line of moving figures far ahead of them. “Oh, Jess, look!”

  Jess bounded up next to her and knelt on the jumpseat, peering out the window. “Nomads,” she said. “Big caravan of em.”

  “Like April?”

  Jess nodded. “They travel between the homesteads, trading. They pick up stuff in Quebec, trade it in the Bay, then they move off to the next place. I remember liking them when I was small. They usually had candy.” Her eyes twinkled a little, and she got up and went back to her station, starting a capture.

  Dev magnified the view, examining the moving line. There were big, square vehicles being pulled by smaller ones, and walking people surrounding them. Most had sticks, all were wrapped in layers of fabric.

  The carrier caught up rapidly to them, and she saw the ones in the back turn to look at them, then slowly the whole train stopped and watched as they overflew it.

  “Got the shields on, Devvie?”

  Dev glanced back. “Yes, but do you think they will try to injure us?” She sounded surprised. “We haven’t done anything to them.”

  “Nomads are only friends to nomads. The rest of us are marks.” Jess nudged one of the controls on her board and took a scan. “They’ll steal you blind if they can. We had to put a watch on them every time they stopped at the Bay.”

  Dev filed that away for future knowledge. “But April seems pleasant.”

  Jess chuckled. “Only you would consider a nomad ops agent pleasant, my friend.” She saw nothing else in the scan to concern her and let her head rest against the chair as she closed her eyes. “She’s nice to me because she figures I’m her ticket to elevation. She’s nice to you because she knows I’ll wipe the floor with her if she isn’t.”

  “Would you?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Dev didn’t think so. Not that Jess wouldn’t make someone hurt if she thought it was necessary, but that April only acted in a pleasant way because she was forced to. She thought April liked Jess and interacted with them because she enjoyed it.

  But there was no sense in being contradictory. It was already shaping up to be a somewhat incorrect day.

  THE COUNCIL WAS held in the remains of an old stone construct, perched on a ridge amidst the rubble and destruction of what was once a city where people lived, back when there were people and cities.

  As they approached, Dev slowed the carrier, pitching it forward just a little so she could see what they were flying over.

  The pattern of the city could still be seen. Roads and buildings, some collapsed into bits, others partially standing, filled the horizon.

  In some of the buildings, she could see signs of life. Bits of cloth fluttering in the wind and motion in and out of doorless doorways. “What happened here, Jess?”

  “Huh?” Jess opened one eye and peered through the window. “Oh. Same thing that happened everywhere. Everyone croaked. Or left and went to the coast.”

  “But there are people there.”

  “Uh huh,” Jess said. “Trade for some scraps from the nomads, trap a bird now and then. Some of them sitting on old caches of freeze drieds. When they run out they’ll croak, too.” She sh
ifted a little. “Some of them scrape up moss and lichen from the rocks, eat that, and bugs. Usually they show up when council’s due, and beg.”

  That sounded very incorrect. Dev grimaced a little as she maneuvered. They were heading up a short slope to the ridge where she could see flyers parked and the far off moving dots of people at the entrance.

  “That used to be a bank,” Jess said. “You know what that is?”

  “Yes.” Dev slowed again and started studying the ground for sufficient space to land. “I had that in basic history.”

  “At the end, it was just digital bits. But they used to build these huge vaults to make everyone believe they were permanent and untouchable. Morons,” Jess said. “But at least they built them from stuff that wouldn’t degrade.”

  And, in fact, the building they were heading for did seem complete. It had steps leading up from the rubbly ground that appeared functional, and behind the overhang she saw two doors flung wide open.

  Even with the bottom of the steps was open ground. “Put it down over there,” Jess said. “Try not to squash anything. Those flyers are expensive.”

  “Yes.” Dev located a flat area past where the flyers were parked and aimed for it. It was not quite even, but the carrier landing systems could handle that and she cut the mains as they drifted over, aware there were figures standing outside staring at them.

  Jess chuckled. “Bet most of them never saw one of these close up before.”

  The carrier landing jets fired as Dev set them gently down, sending up a cloud of steam as the jets heated the ground water. She extended the skids and felt them level underneath them with a gentle rock. “So, what occurs here now?” she asked, securing the engines.

  Jess unhooked her restraints and stood up. “Have no clue. Every quarter year all the stakeholders meet up and talk about crap. I’ve got word from Interforce they suspended the rule that keeps us from being stakeholders, and that’s going to piss them all off, but beyond that I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”

  “I see. “

  “Stakeholders are not supposed to bring outsiders but screw it. You’re coming with me,” Jess said. “So put your snazzy jacket on and let’s go cause a riot.”

  Dev was pleased at being included but not so much about being in a riot, which according to her programming, was both uncomfortable and possibly dangerous. Nevertheless, she shut down the carrier and retrieved her portable scanner and outer garb and joined Jess at the hatch.

  Jess stowed a hand blaster in her belt at the small of her back and pulled the woven fabric over it to make it unobtrusive. Then she brushed the sleeves down and hit the hatch, pausing to let the ramp unfold before she led them both out and onto the rocky ground.

  Dev realized as she stepped on it that it wasn’t natural rock, but something like the ground inside the landing bays. “This is made stone,” she said.

  “Concrete,” Jess said. She put her hands in the pockets of her pullover and started across the landing space, already aware that they were collecting attention fast. “C’mon.”

  A group of people was standing at the top of the stairs leading into the old stone building. All of them half turned to watch the two Interforce operatives approach.

  They walked past the flyers. Figures crouched on the lee side of them watched them pass, staring at them intently.

  “Pilots.” Jess strolled along ignoring all of them. They got close enough to see the faces of the people on the steps, and she grinned a little, understanding the looks of anger there.

  Being the senior stakeholder of a homestead was a big deal. There were only, probably, two dozen of them scattered up and down the eastern coast, all of them under the nominal protection now of Base Ten.

  Some were larger, some smaller, but all of them were centers of humanity, and each of the stakeholders were the ones who controlled the commerce between them. Were responsible for collecting valuable items, running fishing boats, making deals with nomads, whatever it took to take control of resources to feed their residents and gain cred.

  Drake’s Bay was one of the largest homesteads, and being right on the coast, had access to resources some of the others didn’t. Jess understood that her family had a relatively privileged existence and were more comfortable than many.

  Died more often than most in the cause, of course, but still. Though her own life would have been one of hard labor up until she’d grown into the shares system if she hadn’t gone for Interforce.

  People worked hard at the Bay. Everyone got something out of it, housing, food, med if they needed it, but the people who got the most were Drakes. The shares were all tied to the family, passed down between the generations hopefully to those who had the best chance of keeping things quo.

  But in the family, everyone wanted to be—the Drake. The one who made the decisions. When there wasn’t a clear senior stakeholder, it went by committee, so at least some of the family got to rule the roost. There wasn’t a contingency for what had happened with her.

  Interforce took you. You were gone. No participation in the stakehold until you retired and went civ. After you stopped getting paid by them, and supported by them, when you were fully back in the fold and could be expected to make decisions based on what was best for the family without a conflict of interest.

  Justin made them uneasy. He’d brought an outsider viewpoint back with him, and Jess remembered the fights behind those kitchen doors when she’d made her brief visits after he’d been to council and pissed everyone off.

  Hadn’t played the game with them, hadn’t been a deal maker, hadn’t backed down from any of them in the big arguments, because after all, he was not only the Drake, but an inactive ops agent.

  Everyone knew that even retired, Justin had that edge and that temper, and it usually only took one of those flat looks to end almost any fight.

  Jess chuckled without much humor.

  “Are you going to tell these people about the plants?” Dev asked, suddenly. “My research indicated this meeting involves commerce.”

  “No,” Jess said. “They told me not to say anything.”

  They reached the bottom of the steps and started up them, as a thin, brassy bell rang. The people on the steps above them turned and started to move inside, a few lingering at the entry until they reached the top and joined them.

  The largest of these stood squarely in their path and obviously meant to intercept them. He was tall and broad shouldered, with a thick beard and tawny colored hair pulled back into a knot at his neck. “Drake?”

  Jess paused and regarded him, their eyes on a level. “That would be me, yes.”

  “Dan Furstan, Niagara Holding,” he said. “What’s the deal at the Bay? We’ve heard all kinds of stories.”

  Jess held up a portable comp chit. “I’d rather only go through this once,” she said, but in a mild tone. Niagara was one of the stakeholds they were relatively friendly with, according to the brief, crabbed notes she’d dug up. “But it’s good to meet you.”

  That got a tiny, wry smile from him. “Justin was a friend.” He turned aside to let them walk on. “And he didn’t have many.”

  “No.” Jess returned the smile. “We never do.” She glanced to the side. “This is my tech, Dev.”

  Dan studied the slight figure standing next to Jess. “Not sure she’s welcome.”

  “Not sure I care.”

  “You’re definitely Justin’s get.” His smile broadened a little. “Going to be an interesting council for a change.”

  DEV SPENT SOME time examining the chamber, as she perched on a seat next to the bigger one Jess was sitting on.

  The room was filling up with people, who were spread out across the large, round space that was empty in the middle, and surrounded by chairs separated by dusty dividers that went all around the perimeter.

  It seemed that each space was allocated to a stakehold, and they had carvings in them in the stone that indicated which one belonged to which homestead. The one they wer
e in had the image of the snake like thing she recognized from Drake’s Bay. It had space enough in it for about a dozen people, with seats of various sizes and construction.

  The other sections were the same, and all of them were more full of people than theirs was. Overhead there was a dome. In the dome the clear surface let in outside light.

  It was quite attractive. The railings around them were the same substance as the table in Jess’s kitchen and they felt warm to the touch. The chairs were also the same, but in the other areas some were covered in a thick covering. “Jess...”

  “Those are bearskin, yes,” Jess answered as though reading her mind. “Sorry about that.”

  Now, how did Jess know she was going to ask about it? Dev peered at her with interest. Could Jess read her mind? “I understand the need to use all resources, Jess. I am wearing the skin of an animal myself.”

  Jess looked at her. “So you don’t think they’re cute anymore?”

  “I did not say that.”

  Jess chuckled. “It’s a sign you’ve got cred,” she said. “Those things cost like crazy.” She stretched her legs out and leaned her elbows on the chair arms that were bare of any fuzzy substance. “Never got much traction at the Bay.”

  “Because the animals are attractive?”

  Jess tilted her head a little. “Boats bring in the skins sometimes. I think the idea was, you sold it for hard cred, you didn’t keep it to use.”

  “I see.”

  “Sorry about that, Devvie.” Jess reached over and patted her on the leg. “Having seen those cubs, I couldn’t use one now either.”

  Across from them was a section with rather more people than the rest of them. They filled the space completely and took up all the seats.

  Jess nodded at them. “Quebec City. They’re the biggest group in council. Only major town on this side of Atlantia.”

  Dev studied the group with interest, since that was one of the few places she’d been to. The people who filled the section were all dressed in colorful garments and made a show of dusting off the chairs before they sat down.

  “Maybe we can get started now,” Jess said. “I think that was the last bunch they were waiting for.” She straightened up a little. “Looks like they’re bringing around some drinks.”