Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Dev drew in a breath, memories of conversations in the crèche echoing in her head. Hadn’t they been convinced every assignment would be a good one? She considered that. Or had that just been what they’d said, knowing it was what the proctors wanted to hear?

  “Humans, natural born ones, are not ever naturally content,” Doctor Dan said. “And no one really likes taking out the garbage. So if you’re creating human beings who are intended to do that, or to shuck shellfish or whatever, for me as a scientist it made sense to make them want to do that and be happy as a result.”

  “Huh.” Jess grunted softly. “Sometimes that doesn’t work out. I’ve seen it.” she said “The be happy part.”

  “At the Quebec City place,” Dev said. “But I told you, Jess, they also program us to accept being treated badly. We’re okay with that. Really.”

  They both looked at Kurok, who lifted his glass in acknowledgment. “Part of the being content.”

  Jess considered that for a minute. “That’s fucked up.”

  Kurok didn’t look offended, even though Dev looked like she wanted to protest. “It is,” he agreed. “It’s part of the scientific principal known as the law of unintended consequences, or sometimes alternatively the end justifying the means.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Or lies you tell yourself to justify what you want to see done,” Doctor Dan amended, with a quiet smile. “We all do it.”

  “Truth.” Jess acknowledged. “Like taking kids from their families before they end up killing their sibs or old annoying aunties. Just the right thing to do.” A faint smile appeared on her face. “It might sometimes even be the truth.”

  He studied Jess. “Truth is very rarely black and white. So your next question of truth, if you want it answered, will include you in a very small group of potential traitors to humanity.”

  A small silence fell. “Small, because it right now includes only myself, a few of my staff, and since she will very quickly recognize it in herself, Dev,” Kurok said. “So think carefully before you ask, Jesslyn. You come from a very, very long line of conservative thinkers.”

  Jess swirled her mead in it’s cup and drank it slowly, watching Kurok over the rim in silence for several long moments. “Y’know,” she finally said, “my dad left me a note after he bought it. Told me if I went rogue to look you up.”

  Both of Daniel Kurok’s eyebrows lifted sharply.

  “Said he knew you would give me a hand,” Jess added. “That I would be something to you.”

  For a long moment, he went still. Then he lifted his glass and grinned wryly at her. “He was a clever man, your father.”

  “So bring it,” Jess added with a lazy smile. She lifted her free hand and made a little come ahead gesture. “Maybe I’ll surprise you.”

  Now it was Kurok’s turn to ponder, and he did, taking his time before he set his cup down and hiked one ankle up onto his opposing knee. “I was a young idiot when I started working with bio alts here on station,” he said. “I didn’t originate the program, they were already working with basic models when I got here, mostly to do tasks here on station in space.”

  “They didn’t want to have to clean up after themselves?” Jess asked.

  “Not really, no. It wasn’t that. They had a sense that because they lived here up on station, doing all this urgent, needed science, they should have people to do the things that weren’t scientific in nature.” He cleared his throat. “And they could do some basic modifications, to allow adjustment to null, and that sort of thing.”

  Jess chuckled humorlessly.

  “Splitting hairs, yes,” Doctor Dan acknowledged. “They didn’t want to bring up downworlders, ergo, the bio alt program. Originally just for station, but then, when word got out, very lucrative for those downworlders who needed trustworthy workers, whom we could customize for their needs.”

  “Slaves,” Jess stated.

  “Because they had no choice in any of it, yes,” he said. “That was where the program was when I got here.”

  Dev felt so wide eyed her eyeballs were sore. This was, maybe, too much truth for her to comfortably absorb. She had her cup in her hands, still half full, and she felt the solid weight of it as she waited for what was going to come next.

  Doctor Dan seemed to realize her discomfort. “Now, Dev, this seems incorrect to you. I know basic school presented this information in a very different way.”

  Dev put her cup down. “Yes,” she said, “but...we knew. The sets in my classes, we understood the truth behind what that was, we just didn’t talk about it much because we knew it would make the proctors unhappy.”

  Kurok smiled.

  “You knew they were bullshitting?” Jess asked her, in a tone of surprise.

  “No, well.” Dev gave her an appealing look. “Jess, I don’t know what a bullshit is. But we knew things about us that we knew the proctors didn’t. We didn’t think it was incorrect, we just thought it was sort of funny.”

  Now Doctor Dan laughed, a light, surprised sound.

  Jess leaned forward. “That’s what you did. You did that.” She pointed at Dev. “Had nothing to do with her being a tech, but that smart stuff. That. They get it.”

  “Yes, actually, I did that,” he said. “When I became first an advanced, then the senior geneticist here, I put in a macro level change to the overarching biological alternative programming.” He laced his fingers together and put his hands behind his head. “I wasn’t trying to make a better bio alt. I was trying to make better human beings.”

  Dev made a small sound of surprise.

  Jess leaned her elbow on the arm of her chair, looking intently at him. “When I first met Dev, I knew she was different.” She held up a hand when he started to answer. “We have bios on base. I’d dealt with them as mechs. They’re simple.”

  He nodded.

  “Dev was different.” Jess looked over at her. “She was complicated.”

  “Yes,” Kurok said. “Dev, like her year and near year mates, understand what they are. Who they are. What we are. How we’re different.” He paused. “So when they asked for a bio alt that could be an Interforce tech, the foundation was already there.”

  They both looked at Dev. “I am a developmental unit,” she said. “So that does not really surprise me.”

  “And Dev was yet again different from the rest of them because what I added with her, was a very high level of intelligence,” Doctor Dan said with a faint smile. “The ”˜New Model’ part of what Dev is. A potential we deliberately had avoided before now.”

  NOW THEY HAD tea. Three cups of steaming, honey sweetened, real leaf tea in front of them as moving light reflected against the outer walls from the passing sun.

  Dev had forgotten all about being hungry, or the trip, or being in the crèche. She found the matter of fact explanations Doctor Dan gave them to be breathtaking, though she mostly kept silent hardly knowing what to ask.

  It was one thing to tell yourself something inside your head. Dev exhaled a little. Totally another thing to have someone like Doctor Dan saying it because Doctor Dan had actually done it.

  But Jess had known all along. Even without Doctor Dan telling her, she’d known that Dev was different. Was smart. Was like her, a natural born. Even when they’d only just met because Jess was herself very smart, even though she often said she wasn’t.

  “If they find out about this they’re gonna lock you up in one of those plastic eggs,” Jess said. “You realize that, right? Even the security chief down at the Bay realized making smarter bios didn’t mean anything good for the average yonk down there.”

  “Actually, they’ll just space me,” Kurok said. “It’s much cleaner, and one more piece of debris out there won’t matter. I’ve had to be extremely careful about the DNA patterns I’ve used.” He sipped his tea reflectively. “But I know someday they’ll figure it out. I’m not that arrogant.”

  “That’s a little crazy.”

  “Mmm.” Kurok nodded. “More than
you know. Staff’s already saying that the latest sets seem to have an understanding of status and advancement.” He sighed. “They compete for attention and want to excel. So far everyone views that as a positive.”

  Jess got up to stretch her legs, rambling around in a long oval pattern. “That’s why they were so jazzed to get on comms on base,” she said suddenly, looking around at Dev. “Right?”

  “Well, yes, sure,” Dev answered. “To do that means better tasks and more responsibility. That means a better place.” She put her cup down. “It was...Jess, do you remember when we were in the base and you all were up outside and I was down in the bio alt quarters?”

  “When we were going to be splatted? Sure.” Jess went over and peered out the airlock door. “When you got that door opened.”

  “Yes. I was able to get into systems when I logged in with my operations credentials,” Dev said. “I told the rest of the sets that it was not optimal for the enemy to leave that avenue open, and they said the enemy hadn’t expected one of us to have those credentials.”

  “Yeah? And?”

  “They said I was the first. And I was. But they did not want me to be the last.”

  Jess walked over and leaned against the back of the chair that Dev was sitting in, looking over her at Kurok. “If they figure out what’s going on, those bio alts are probably in trouble.”

  “That’s why only very few people know,” Doctor Dan said. “To anyone else, we’re just working on making bio alts more useful. You saw the reaction to Dev’s success.”

  “Yeah.” Jess watched him thoughtfully. “But what’s the end game, Doc? Bios take over the world? How does this make anything better?”

  “Fair question.” Kurok smiled his gentle smile at her. “And I’m not entirely sure if I have the answer to it yet.” He looked around as the door announcer chimed. “Ah. I believe that might be dinner.” He got up and went to the door, pausing to study the panel beside it before he opened it and stepped back. “Hope you enjoy what I ordered.”

  “Agents eat anything,” Jess said. “And Dev eats anything except spicy crabs.”

  “And live animals,” Dev muttered. “But I know we won’t get that here.”

  Jess chuckled and gave her a little hug from behind then released her and straightened up.

  A bio alt entered, pushing a small cart with trays on it. “I hope it’s all satisfactory, Doctor Dan.” He glanced into the room, then quickly returned his attention to Kurok.

  “Thank you, Ayebee.” The doctor indicated the small preparation space. “Just leave it there.” He stepped back out of the way. “I appreciate all the things you brought here for my guests.”

  The bio alt looked pleased at the acknowledgment. “Thank you.” He looked over at them again. “Hello, NM-Dev-1. Welcome back. We have heard of your excellent work.”

  “Hello, Ayebee,” Dev responded cordially. “Thank you. I’ve done my best so far.” She glanced at Jess. “This is my friend, Jess.”

  “Hello.” The bio alt gave Jess a somewhat nervous look. “Is it all correct, Doctor Dan?”

  “Yes, thanks. I’ll take it from here.” Kurok let the bio alt out, and then returned to the cart. “Come over here, my friends. There’s too many plates to carry them.”

  There was a small counter near the preparation area with little seats next to it, and for a moment the three of them were silent as they sorted out the contents.

  Once they were settled, Kurok regarded them. “Let’s change the subject while we eat. Tell me about this whole seed thing, hm?” His voice was casual. “Doss told me someone from Interforce called up here about it?”

  Jess was curiously tasting the contents of the plate, but she looked up sharply at the question. “What did he tell you?”

  He chewed a few times and swallowed. “Just that someone found some of our seed stock downside. No one seemed to know much about it,” he answered. “Or did they?”

  Jess studied him intently. “That’s all he said?”

  “Should there be more?”

  Jess regarded her meal. “Alters told me they asked about how an entire cavern full of plants from those seeds could end up in Drake’s Bay.” She looked up at him. “Where apparently some rock can make them grow.”

  Kurok’s jaw actually dropped, and he stared at her in open astonishment. “What?”

  “What what, what about the seed, or what about the glowing rocks?” Jess looked a bit amused. “Just my luck, right? They find some damned crap at the Bay that does what that big ass machine we blew up did. Figures.”

  “Glowing rock?” Kurok repeated slowly. “What kind of glowing rock? There’s no type of phosphorescence anyone’s ever found that can trigger photosynthesis on a large scale. We’d have regenerated half the damn planet. I mean, what the hell?”

  Dev got up and went over to her pack, opened one of the pouches in it, and removed something. She came back over and put the item on the table next to his hand. “Here you go, Doctor Dan. I brought a little bit of this here for you to see. I thought you might want to.”

  He put his fork down and picked up the rock and turned it over in his fingers. It emitted a soft glow, peachy yellow in color, just under the surface of it’s rough exterior. “Are you kidding me? This was in the Bay?”

  Satisfied, Jess went back to ingesting her meal. “That was in the Bay. Someone did a deal with my brother.” She forked up a bit of yellow substance and chewed it. “There was some of this down there.” She pointed at the substance. “What is it again?”

  “Peaches?” Kurok said. “Your brother was growing peaches?”

  Kurok hadn’t known. Jess felt a sense of relief in her guts. Unless his acting skills were beyond her ability to detect, the bewilderment not only on his face and body language but in his voice rang true. “Peaches,” she said. “I like ’em.”

  “Randall said it was no big deal,” Doctor Dan said. “No big deal. Son of a bitch! So now who in the hell was lying?”

  “I have some vid of the cavern, too.” Dev sat back down. “It was really nice, Doctor Dan. It reminded me of the grow chambers here. It smelled excellent.”

  “I’m sure it did,” he muttered.

  “Base sent some of the research team over,” Jess said. “I get the feeling there’s lots of cred in this.”

  “You told them?” Kurok’s voice dropped almost an octave.

  Jess looked back at him and shrugged. “I’m active duty,” she said. “Sure I told them. After I told them I offed my sib for doing deals with what I suspected then was the other side.”

  He covered his eyes with one hand and leaned on the table. “Son of a bitch.”

  Jess merely chewed, a look of wry bemusement on her face. “And here you thought you had news, huh?”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  FINALLY, THEY WERE in their quarters. Or to be more precise, they were in Jess’s quarters, seated on the bed together. “He’s freaking,” Jess said, resting her elbows on her knees and looking around the space.

  “Doctor Dan?”

  “Yeah.”

  Dev cleared her throat. “He does seem quite discomfited. I think we really made him incorrect with our report. I have never seen him so surprised.”

  Jess chuckled soundlessly. “You doing okay, Devvie? About being up here I mean?”

  Dev nodded. “It’s not like I thought it was going to be,” she admitted. “I’m actually feeling sort of excellent at the moment.”

  “Aw, c’mon you didn’t really think me and the doc were gonna let them take you and put you back with the rest of them, didja?”

  Dev smiled a little. “Honestly? Not really, but I was trying to psych myself so in case it did happen I was okay with it.” She looked around. “But I also know my being here is going to upset a lot of people on station, and the Ayebee is going to tell everyone I was in Doctor Dan’s quarters.”

  “Screw ’em,” Jess said.

  Dev’s brow creased a little. “How would that help?”

>   Jess snickered. Then she got up and wandered around the space, looking out the panel near the ceiling to see the stars outside. The sun was behind the earth again, and it was darker than dark out there, a richness of black she’d never seen before.

  “I think I will go get some rest.” Dev stood up and lifted her backpack. “Doctor Dan said he would meet with us in the morning.” She moved to the door, aware of the tall, silent figure at her back. “Good night, Jess.”

  “I might come visit,” Jess said, as the door opened. “Don’t get freaked out.”

  “Of course not.” Dev left the room and went to the one right next to it, pausing before putting her hand on the pad. She felt the faint tingle as it processed the chip in her hand then the door slid open to admit her.

  It was dim and quiet inside, the lights coming up a little as she entered and put her pack down on the bed. She opened it and removed her sanitary kit and her sleep clothes. She took both into the small sanitary unit and set them down, pausing to review the facilities.

  Water, yes, as she’d expected, though there was a sign pleading for economy with it. She ignored two small tubes of soap and set out the ones she’d brought with her. She used a little to wash her face then exchanged her jumpsuit for her sleep clothes.

  Then, at last, the sight of her collar made her twitch a little, the first time it was visible since she’d come on station. Dev exhaled. She didn’t hide it on purpose. It was just how the Interforce uniforms were made after all.

  But the sleep clothes, the sleeveless shirt and shorts, exposed the bio alt device along with the dark brown lines patterned into the skin of her shoulder.

  She folded her arms and regarded her profile somberly then she turned and went back into the main area of the room. She detoured to the courtesy station to retrieve a small cup of tea, just as she would have done in her quarters at the base.

  She took the tea back to the bedside with her and put it down on the plas table, sitting down on the bed and bouncing a little experimentally.

  Reasonably comfortable. She pulled herself up and leaned against the inflated pillow, the surface just a bit yielding as she stretched out and picked up the tea to sip it.