Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Jess leaned against the opposite side of the door frame, crossing her ankles and lacing her fingers together. “I took convincing,” she said. “So I won’t take offense at that, this time. Dev’s not a jelly bag.”

  “Not a bio alt?” He looked at her in surprise. “They said she was.”

  “She is. Just not a jelly bag brain,” Jess replied. “She’s smarter than both of us combined. New kind of bio. “

  The chief frowned. “All the people out there, scavengers and all that, and they make bios now who can even take our jobs? Mine? Yours? What’s the payoff in that, Drake? The one good thing about them was they were dumb as rocks.”

  “Don’t think they’ll ever make any that can take my job.” Jess smiled. “Those skills you don’t want to code spirals for.” She flexed her hands, then lifted her eyes and looked right at the chief, who, after a brief inhale, took a step back.

  He lifted his hands, palms out, facing her. “I remember Justin. Don’t need a reminder.”

  Curiously, it cheered her up. “So anyway. Jimmy had an admirer. Keep her out of my way.” Jess pushed off from the doorjamb. “Dev and I are taking a shuttle out tomorrow. The two with me are friendly.” She looked back at him. “Can’t vouch for anyone else.”

  He lowered his hands. “Heard that,” he acknowledged. “Good flight.”

  DEV GOT HER gear settled in the big space she’d been assigned, then stood with her arms folded regarding her things, deciding what to take with her to space.

  Interforce uniforms, yes. She set them aside. Her sharkskin jacket, yes, and her pack and sanitary kit that she took on the carrier with her. Though she knew they would have necessities up on station, she wanted to bring her own.

  They were different, and she wanted to be seen as different, especially in crèche housing. Uncomfortable as that would be, she wanted some of her own things with her. Though Jess promised to make everyone be nice, and she had every faith in her partner, she knew what the rules were.

  She was a bio alt. Even Doctor Dan couldn’t change that. At best, they’d put her in transit quarters, down near the shuttle bay, but at least there she’d have a little privacy.

  There was a tap on the outer door, and she went over to open it, reasonably sure who was on the other side. “Hello.”

  “Hey, Devvie.” Jess rambled into the room, bumping the door shut behind her. “Like your new digs?” She peered around, then went over to poke at the bed. “Not bad.” She sat down on it and rested her elbows on her knees. “Know what?”

  Dev came over and sat next to her. “What?”

  “I could use a nap,” Jess said. “It’s been a long ass day.”

  “Me too,” Dev said. “I would like some rest, especially before our trip tomorrow.” She kicked out her feet a little, bumping her heels against the base of the bed. “I wonder if I’ll have to sleep in a pod tomorrow night.”

  Jess regarded her. “You’re sleeping in whatever bed they put me in tomorrow night,” she said. “And let me tell you, Dev, I ain’t sleeping in no plastic egg.”

  Dev let her head rest against Jess’s shoulder. “I don’t think you’d fit,” she said. “Most of us are shorter than you are.”

  Jess put her head down against Dev’s. She thought about things she could be doing, places she could be poking into, and somehow it all just seemed pointless.

  Boring.

  It made her feel better just to sit here with Dev, rocking them both back and forth a little together as she listened to the mechanical sounds of the Bay around her.

  “Tomorrow morning, I’m going to take you down to the beach I used to swim off when I was a kid,” Jess said. “It’s not crazy waves like at the base. It’s just a nice piece of sand. We can scrounge.”

  “I’d like to see that place. Was it where you have that picture of you?”

  “Where I look like a wet piece of seaweed? Yes.” Jess smiled. “We can go swimming. Maybe we’ll see dolphins.” She watched Dev from the corner of her eye, seeing the tension slowly relax across her face. “Maybe we’ll see a turtle.”

  Dev nodded a little. “I’d like that.” She reached over and took hold of Jess’s hand. “Jess, could we practice sex tonight?”

  Jess blinked. “Sure. Nice big bed to do it in, not that crappy little hammock.” She picked up Dev’s hand and put a kiss on her knuckles. “Want to get a shower first?”

  “I’d love to.” Dev soaked in the moment, gathering it to her, intent on savoring all the human experience it offered, because once they went back to station tomorrow, you never knew what would happen.

  DEV LIKED THE beach very much. She ruffled her hair dry, tasting the rich saltiness of the sea on her tongue as she walked across the soft, moist sand.

  This was much nicer than their surfing space. The sand was a semi circle tucked against one of the extruded cliff walls of Drake’s Bay, with a tumble of salt washed boulders behind it.

  A portion of the rocks were altered, making a space that was sheltered from the weather that contained a place to cook with control surfaces that ran under the ground back into the big caverns in the cliffs.

  Jess was in there, wet and disheveled, busy preparing a fish she’d caught in the water they’d just recently come out of, aligning it on the electric grill, along with some crunchy seaweed and some mussels.

  The swimming had been successful as well, since the half circle of beach fronted a shallow, protected bit of water that wasn’t very deep and had no real current, perfect for her to practice and for Jess to play around in, doing flips and dives and other odd acrobatics.

  It had only rained a little and now was not at all, the air a little dry and cool and the breeze enough to dry them. Dev felt a sense of animal comfort that was a little surprising but good.

  Also, the fish Jess was cooking smelled great. Dev went over and watched the process, determined to push aside her anxiety at their pending trip to space in order to enjoy the treat.

  “How’s that, Devvie?” Jess regarded her work. “Lucky to find that big a grouper this shallow.”

  Dev studied the split opened animal currently grilling. “It seems very appealing. I like this space as well.” She indicated the beach and the rocks. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

  Jess grinned. “Used to spend a lot of time here.” She poked the fish. “Nothing really like it near the base.”

  Dev put the towel she’d been drying herself with around her neck and found a chiseled rock bench to sit on. She got herself settled only to jump up a moment later. “Oh Jess! Look!”

  Jess grabbed the knife she’d used to clean the fish and jumped around the grill, raising it as she got around the rock edge enough to see what Dev was looking at. “Oh.” She relaxed. “Devvie, don’t do that to me, huh?”

  “What is that?” Dev asked as a large animal lifted its head and looked at her, strings of seaweed hanging from it’s mouth.

  “That’s a sea turtle.” Jess regarded the beast, whose back was easily as wide as the width of her reach. “Hey, buddy!”

  The turtle chewed reflectively then went back to the pile of green the water had washed ashore. Behind it, Dev saw the track in the sand it had made as it came up out of the water. “Were we swimming with that? I didn’t see it.” She edged forward.

  “Don’t put your fingers near it’s mouth,” Jess warned. “They lay eggs on the beach. Never knew them to do it here though.” She returned to the grill and sorted out her bounty onto old, scarred plas plates.

  The turtle ignored Dev as she came closer. Its body was hard, she noted, big and oval shaped, and she tentatively reached out to touch it, finding it slightly rough and a little slick. The animal moved forward on its short feet and munched steadily on the same type of seaweed that Jess was cooking inside.

  She knelt down to observe it, keeping her hands far away from its beak like mouth. It paused and looked at her, its eyes deep and black, and very inhuman.

  Jess came out with two plates and sat down on a rock
. “Here.” She offered one of the plates to Dev, who scrambled to her feet and sat next to her. “They live longer than we do.” Jess indicated the turtle.

  “Really?” Dev ingested some of the fish that freshly grilled and dusted with spice was delicious. “What is the hard part for?”

  “Protection. Like our carrier,” Jess said. “It pulls its head and legs in and nothing can get at it.” She regarded the turtle. “It’s a living dinosaur. You know what that is?”

  Dev considered. “No. I’ll look it up when I get back to my scanner.” She paused to chew and swallow. “This is really good.”

  Jess seemed pleased with the compliment. “Dad taught me to make this. Said it was good for an agent to be able to fend for themselves, out in the beyond.” She looked up and around the little cove. “We used to come down here when I was on leave, just the two of us.”

  Dev tried to imagine what that would have been like and failed. She just had no reference. “It sounds nice.”

  “Yeah.” Jess looked off into the distance, eyes a little unfocused. “He said he and I were family in a way the rest of them weren’t,” she said, in a thoughtful tone. “I think I miss him.”

  More things she really didn’t have referents on. Did she miss anyone? Dev didn’t think so. Her most interesting relationship was sitting right there next to her. It was like whatever had happened to her before in her life was just...just really nothing. Dev frowned and wondered if that wasn’t a little incorrect. “If you were no longer here, I would really miss you,” she said. “That would be horrible.”

  Jess chuckled and bumped shoulders with her. “Aw, you sweet talker you.” She nibbled a mussel out of it’s shell, then glanced up sharply as her ears picked up the soft shift of boots against sand. “Hope we’re not going to have our lunch ruined.”

  Dev looked around, unsure. “What?”

  “Someone’s coming, around the rocks there.” Jess wolfed down the rest of her fish and set the plas down, dusting her fingers off and standing up as two figures came around the bend and onto the beach. “Hold it.”

  The two stopped and looked at her, uncertainly. They were in Interforce jumpsuits, but with science piping and the typical side packs, and unknown to her. “We were just taking some samples,” the one in front said.

  Jess walked casually into their path. “What kind of samples?”

  “Commander Alters said we had free range,” the second one said. “Can you just let us get on with it?”

  “No.” Jess felt her posture alter, and she took a step toward them. “Alters doesn’t own this place, and you better not bring your jackasswardness out here and annoy the person who does.”

  They took a step back, recognizing the change. “Sorry,” the one in front said. “You must be agent Drake. No offense intended, Agent. Hard to know one of us here, half the folks here look like they belong.”

  Jess relaxed, but only a little. “Lines a little thin between in and out here,” she said. “You’ll live longer if you assume we’re all a little screwball.” She indicated the bags. “Now, what kind of samples are you taking?”

  They hesitated. “We’re not supposed to talk about it,” the second one said. “It’s restricted.”

  Jess felt her temper flare and knew they knew it.

  Dev’s voice came from behind them as she walked up and joined Jess, her scanner in her hand. “It’s two segments of phosphine bearing mineral, with interjections of what appears to be volcanic sediment. There are no radiant qualities to the samples they have.”

  There was an uncomfortable silence when she stopped talking, broken by Jess’s low, wry chuckle. “Thanks Dev.” Jess rested her elbow on Dev’s shoulder. “My tech,” she added. “Take your rock collection and go somewhere else. This is my beach.”

  They backed off. “We’ll just come back later,” the second one said. “And we’ll make sure the commander knows.”

  Jess sighed, waiting for them to leave, and then going over to sit down next to the turtle, giving his head a light scratch with her fingertips. “Ain’t going to end well, Devvie. I better talk to Alters myself.”

  “Perhaps he will decide to not have us go to station.”

  “Don’t count on it.”

  DEV DID UP the catches on her backpack and set it on the chair near the old, rock surfaced desk in the space she’d been given.

  Her skin still tingled from the shower she’d taken, finding the water pressure here in Drake’s Bay significantly more powerful than what she’d known in the Citadel.

  Interesting. The soap smelled like the type at the base, but it was just a little different, a little spicier and the scent just a bit stronger. She’d taken the time to fill one of the empty tubes from her kit with it to take it up with her.

  That was good. Not only was it different from what the rest of the bio alts would have, it was from her partner’s homeland. Dev patted the outside of the pack, which already had her scanner and her toolkit inside it.

  She went over to the dispenser and retrieved a glass of fizzy something, not the kack they had at base, but something lighter and with a different, sharper taste. It wasn’t as intense, and she’d decided she liked it.

  The furniture in the room was odd and also a little strange, the chairs and one of the tables made out of the organic substance like the table in the private kitchen. She sat down on one of the ones near the bed and leaned back, waiting for Jess to knock.

  She’d heard the arrival of the shuttle earlier and now that it was time, she just hoped it all worked out.

  There was an inner door to her space, and a few moments later it bumped open and Jess poked her head in. “Hey!” She came in carrying her own pack. “Ready?”

  “Yes.” Dev stood up and put her cup down. She picked up her pack and swung it onto her back. “Are you?”

  “Mmm.” Jess closed the door and they left from Dev’s main one, going down the corridor and emerging into the first level of Drake’s Bay.

  Surprisingly the halls were full of people, and it took them some time to make their way through the crowd and down the long passageway toward the distant pad the shuttle had set down on. This was past the main part of the stakehold, but there were people lining the way from the time they left the family quarters to the entrance to the pad that the shuttle was on.

  No one said anything. The Drake’s Bay personnel were just there, sorting ropes made of seaweed and moving boxes around, apparently randomly at work and justified to be there.

  Jess knew better. She kept a smile on her face all the way down, lifting a hand and returning casual greetings until they went through the last big metal doors and exited into the raw, bare stone space that was the shuttle pad.

  A half dozen Bay guards were there. “Drake.” One of them gave her a tap on the chest salute. “Good flight.”

  Jess paused and regarded him. All six of the guards looked right back at her, braced, in Bay colors. “Keep an eye on things,” she said. “We might have land crabs in the kitchen.”

  The lead guard smiled at her, without any humor at all. “Heard that.”

  Jess touched her forehead in a return salute and walked out from the overhang of stone into the open.

  Not like at the base. Nothing guarded the pad. It was just a large, flat stone plateau that now held the big, tube shaped shuttle with its gently pointed snout and the wide wings jutting out to either side.

  A shuttle loader was waiting for them. “Jesslyn Drake?”

  “That’d be me,” Jess said. “And NM-Dev-1.”

  He nodded. “Come with me. Station arranged quarters onboard for you.”

  They followed him across the empty pad and up the ramp and into the entryway of the shuttle as wisps of rocket fuel tainted the air. They turned to enter the main cabin as they came to the hatchway, but the man waved them forward. “Private cabin.”

  They got a glimpse of the main room, half full of bodies in seats, most of which bore bio alt collars and had eyes fixed on the far wall. D
ev remembered being one of them and met the eyes of one near the end of the row of hard seats.

  He stared at her, then looked away, and the door shut as they moved into a smaller chamber, with wider, padded seats. “Here you go. Have a good flight.” The loader shut the door behind them, and they were alone.

  They stowed their packs in the small cabinets, then took seats in the plush, comfortable couches, fastening the restraints as the engines rumbled into life below.

  Jess tightened her seat belt and looked around. The smaller cabin was very much like the one she’d first faced Bain in, a bit of plush that had indicated to her his status.

  Now she and Dev shared the space with its sanitary unit and both drink and snack dispenser. “Nice,” she said.

  Dev settled into her seat and licked her lips. “Different. I was in the main cabin when I came downside with Doctor Dan.”

  “So what happens now?” Jess asked. “Never been on one of the space ones before.”

  “First the rockets will light,” Dev said, “and then...oh.”

  The rockets lit and there was no point in speaking as a rumbling filled the space and they were being shaken violently as the shuttle took off, first moving slowly and then accelerating.

  Jess felt an itching buzz in her ears and she grimaced a little as grav increased and she felt herself being shoved down into her seat, a pressure that increased steadily along with the rumbling for long minutes. “Ugh. Supposed to feel like this?”

  Dev opened one eye and regarded her. “I really don’t know. I’ve only come in the other direction.”

  Jess closed her eyes against the discomfort and flexed her hands, taking deep breaths until she felt the pressure slacken and then the sound did, and the next thing she knew gravity was gone and she was lifting up just a bit off her seat against the restraints. “What the...”

  “We’re in null,” Dev said. “There is no grav until we get to station.”