by Melissa Good
They were all silent for a moment. “Now I’m hungry,” Jess said. “Doc, the food up here sucks.”
Kurok leaned back against the console, running the fingers of one hand through his hair. “Yeah, you know that’s one thing I did enjoy being downside the last time. I’d forgotten how bland it is here.” He studied Dev. “I didn’t intend on getting you so upset, Dev.”
Dev felt a little embarrassed, sitting there. “I just didn’t want to lose anything,” she said after a moment. “I think if I’d known it was you, Doctor Dan, it would have been okay. I know you won’t hurt me.”
Jess put her hand on Dev’s damp back. She sensed her fear and felt Dev’s body shiver. She gave her a little scratch with her fingertips, wanting to help but not entirely sure how.
Doctor Dan came back to the table and leaned on it, studying her. “No, I would never knowingly hurt you, Dev. But I can’t vouch for everyone who has the skills that I do.” He looked up at Jess then back at Dev. “Will you trust me once more, Dev? I’ll make it so you don’t have to be afraid of anyone doing anything like this to you again.”
Jess made a little grunt of approval. Dev looked up at her. “What are you going to do?” She looked back at Kurok.
“I’m going to put you down and remove the synaptics,” Doctor Dan replied in a gentle tone. “Jess asked me to do that, you know, and I said it needed to be your decision. So it is. Let me know if that’s okay.”
Dev blinked. “Oh.”
“You can think about it for a little bit. I’m going to go and get some protein bars for us to snack on.” He patted her hand. “I’ll be right back.”
He left, and they were there in the quiet of the programming room, its dim, calming light bathing them.
“You okay?” Jess finally asked.
“Yes.” Dev ran her fingers through her sweat dampened hair. “That was really uncomfortable. I knew I was down, and I felt someone in there.”
“That would creep me right out,” Jess said. “I think the Doc’s okay, though.”
Dev nodded. “He is. I can feel the parts where he was, and it’s just a little bit of tech loading. He didn’t have a chance to do that much.”
“Like I said, that would creep me out. But you’re right, he didn’t have time to do squat because soon as he was in there all sorts of alarms started going off on this thing.”
Jess indicated the programming rig.
Dev grimaced.
“He said you had a lot of good stuff in there. I’m sure he wouldn’t have messed that up, Devvie. He wants you to be a super wrencher.”
Dev stared at the far wall. “I didn’t care about that,” she said after a long pause. “I don’t care about that. I...” She exhaled. “I don’t want anyone to go in there and change the things I feel.”
Jess hitched herself up on the table and sat next to her, her hands clasped between her knees. “Feel?”
Dev nodded. “The special feeling I have for things. For people.” She looked sidelong at Jess. “For you.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
Jess pondered that. “I don’t think the doc would have done that to you. He knows what that is, that whole feeling thing.” She leaned her shoulder against Dev’s. “But honest, Dev. If anyone tried to mess with you like that, I’d rip their hearts out through their chests.”
Dev looked at her from under her pale bangs.
“Even the Doc,” Jess said, “and he knows it. He knows what I am.”
That kind of stunned Dev. Not that Jess would do violence. She understood that part. But that she would do it on Dev’s behalf to someone like Doctor Dan, who she knew Jess liked.
That seemed strange and somewhat incorrect. Then another thought occurred to her. “The guard...”
“I killed him,” Jess said placidly. “I broke his neck and nearly did that to another of them. So maybe now the rest of them know what the doc does.” She smiled. “It’s good to have me as a friend and crappy to have me as an enemy.”
Yes. Dev exhaled. That was true. “I’m really glad you’re my friend.”
“We’re like a directional explosion. Point us in the right direction and it’s all good.” Jess sounded almost cheerful. “Otherwise, not so much.”
The door opened and Doctor Dan returned and pulled some wrapped items out of his harbor shirt front pocket. He dropped them on the console. “Help yourselves, my friends.” He sat behind the console and regarded them. “Had a bit of a complication. Some of the DeeArs came in to clean the lab.”
“Found the mess?”
Kurok nodded. “Mmm. For some reason they seemed to think I’d done it.” He looked vaguely bemused. “But in the end it worked out as I had them tidy up and take the two living ones to med.”
Jess chuckled. “Bet that adds to your mystique.”
There was a little silence, and then Dev cleared her throat. “Can we do the collar now, Doctor Dan? I’m ready.”
“I think we should, Dev. Because after word gets around about the guards, I’m sure there’ll be some degree of confusion here, and I might not get a chance.”
Not for the first time, Jess found herself impressed with this man’s casual courage. She understood what he meant, even if Dev perhaps didn’t. “Hey, I pulled the trigger.” She got up off the table to give Dev some space to lie down. “Let them be pissed at me. You warned them.”
“Oh, I don’t think so, Jesslyn.” Doctor Dan came around the console and pulled the programming rig down over Dev again, this time with those trusting eyes watching him. “Now, Dev, you understand this will mean you can’t get any further enhancements.”
“Yes,” Dev said. “I’ll have to do it all myself.”
He smiled. “And there’s never been a mind that came out of this lab more suited for that.” He gently attached the rig then touched his fingertips to her forehead. “Go down, Dev,” he said. “When you come back up you’ll be one of us.”
Dev blinked, faint moisture appearing on her lashes. Then she closed her eyes and her body relaxed.
Kurok turned his head. “Prop that door open, will you, Jesslyn? If anything in the outer area stirs, warn me.”
Without a word, Jess went to the portal. After it slid open, she leaned her body against it, crossing her long legs casually and folding her arms. The outer lab was quiet, the guards were gone, even the smell of urine replaced with a gentle floral scent.
She looked back into the inner chamber. Kurok had settled back behind the console and was staring intently at the scan screen. His fingertips moved over the input surface, but this time Dev remained quiet and still, and there was no flare of alarms.
Jess remembered how uncomfortable Dev had been talking about the collar. She nodded a little, glad Dev made the logical choice to get rid of it. “She doesn’t really need that thing anymore, does she Doc?”
Kurok smiled. “It’s always useful to be able to be given what you need with little effort,” he said. “Imagine being able to be given an entire deployment briefing, with pictures and diagrams, in minutes without having to study it.”
Jess made a little sound under her breath. “Never thought of it that way.”
“No, most people don’t. They usually consider the negative parts of being a bio alt, never the positive ones.” He completed a rapid fire set of inputs and studied the results. Then he flexed his fingers and typed in a shorter series, the last few taps slowing until he stopped.
For a few moments he just stared at the screen.
“Something wrong?” Jess finally asked.
Doctor Dan sighed. “No. I just didn’t think this would be as hard as it is.” He glanced up at Jess. “But I better get on with it.” He turned back and pressed a final input, and a moment later the rig attached over Dev flickered and then retracted, removing itself from the set of connects on either side of her neck
“That’s it?”
“When you know exactly what you’re doing, it doesn’t take long.” He got up and circ
led the console, pausing to pull out a drawer and remove a small case that he brought with him to the table. “Now there’s just the mechanical bit.”
Jess watched him open the case and remove a set of hand tools that glittered faintly in the light overhead. He pulled one of the panels down and positioned it, and then he gently moved Dev’s head to the right.
Very far off in the distance, Jess heard the faint echo of a klaxon. She straightened up a little then looked back into the room. “Hear that?”
“Yes.” Kurok had a tool in one hand. “Probably nothing good.” He worked deftly at the glittering metallic surface wrapping Dev’s neck. “Hopefully it won’t be utterly bad.”
“Let me go find out.” Jess left the door and let it slide shut behind her, moving across the lab at a lope. She reached the outer door and it opened. She darted out into the hallway, sweeping her senses right and left.
She heard the klaxon more clearly now. It wasn’t the same as had been sounding in the null gym. This one had more urgency to it. A sound of running footsteps drew her attention, and she turned a corner to find one of the bio alts coming toward her at speed. “Hey!”
The bio alt skidded literally to a halt, panting, and stared at her. “Where’s Doctor Dan?” he asked. “Please? I must find him.”
It was one of the ones who had spoken in the big room. “Why?” Jess asked.
He looked behind him then at her. “I have to tell him. They sent me from operations. There are bad people here.”
Uh oh. Jess took a step nearer to him. “What kind of bad people? People like me?”
“I don’t know. They told me to find Doctor Dan and tell him there are bad people here, and we are in danger,” the bio alt told her. “You’re Doctor Dan’s friend. They told me that, too.”
“Who’s they?”
The bio alt stared at her. “A KayTee,” he said. “They were in the crèche, this morning. They said you were there. You are Jess.”
“Okay, c’mon.” Jess pointed back the way she’d come. “He’s in his lab.”
The bio alt looked completely relieved. “Thank you!” He hurried past her and turned the corner. Jess debated continuing, but then some instinct grabbed her and she whirled around and bolted after him, catching up to him as he got to the lab door.
He jumped, startled, but put his hand on the pad and waited for the door to open.
It didn’t. He put his hand on it again, but the door stayed shut and the pad itself remained pink. Jess nudged him aside and put her own hand on it, feeling the tickle as it scanned through her skin, activating the chips embedded under it.
The pad turned teal and the door opened. “G’wan.” Jess pushed him forward, and as they passed through she turned and palmed the internal panel. The door slid shut and the pad turned pink again. “Hey Doc! We got problems!”
The bio alt looked around. “Doctor Dan?”
Jess loped to the door of the programming room and hit the latch. The door opened and she got inside before it fully retracted. “Doc.”
“Sh.” Doctor Dan was bent over Dev, his hands moving in a slow, cautious motion. “Terrible time to make me jump, Jesslyn.”
“One of your boys is here, saying we’ve got bad people in the joint.” Jess spread her arms out to block the door as the bio alt crowded in back of her. “Not sure what that means since he doesn’t seem to think that means me.”
“Oh, dear.” Doctor Dan finished his cautious task and straightened up with a grimace. “It probably means we have an enemy shuttle locking on.”
“Enemy.”
“Other side.” Doctor Dan hurried around to the other side of the table. “I have one more probe to remove. Give me five minutes.”
The far off klaxons suddenly got louder, and the lights flickered overhead. “Make it a one minute five minutes, Doc.” Jess pushed back from the door, bumping the bio alt backwards. “I’m gonna run to our bunks and grab my gear.”
She let the door close. “Stay here,” she told the bio alt. “Or better yet, go get some of your friends and bring ’em back.”
The bio alt nodded. “Yes.”
“Everyone’s gotta help the doc, right?”
“Yes.”
JESS RACED THROUGH the tube shaped hallways, bowling over no fewer than three panicked bio alts who got in her way. She reached the tube their rooms were in and got to the door, slapping the pad with her hand and lunging at it.
Fortunately for both her and the door, it opened and she scrambled in and grabbed both her and Dev’s packs and threw them over her shoulder, feeling the weight and heft of her hand blaster whack her in the ribs.
She got out the door and back into the hall and was two steps down it when the lights flickered and went from pale white to an annoying shade of yellow she disliked intensely. She blinked against it as she broke back into a run.
The guard at the entrance was gone. She turned the corner and moved into the wider hallway again, hearing a booming thunk echoing off in the distance. A crackle sounded over head and as she reached the tube where the doc’s lab was, a metallic sounding voice erupted.
“Emergency stations. Emergency stations. All security to lockdown.”
She felt a shudder go through the floor and saw tube sections closing off. She redoubled her speed, sliding through a closing panel as it almost caught her, in order to get into the section with the lab in it.
The area was full of scared bio alts. Jess could smell it on them, and they turned agitatedly as she approached the door. “Hang on, kids.” She bumped her way through them. “Gimme some space.”
“Where’s Doctor Dan? The door is locked,” A BeeAye protested, his palm against the panel. “They told us to come here!”
“Relax.” Jess got her hand on it and the door slid open. “Don’t shove.”
She bounded into the lab with the crowd of them after her. “Close that door behind ya...Hey Doc!”
Jess felt the agitation before she heard it and turned, setting down Dev’s pack as the door filled with security, all with stun sticks and several jumpsuited figures behind them. She got herself squared to the inner door and got her blaster out and into her hands as everyone else came to a halt.
It went quiet. Jess released the safety on the blaster and cradled it, legs spread. “Stop!”
Doss was in the lead, two other of the administrators behind him with several proctors. “I’m sure there’s some misunderstanding here, we just need to speak to Daniel.”
“He’s busy,” Jess stated, flatly. “Why not go see why all the alarms are going off? Ain’t because of him.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine.” Doss held up a hand. “Really there’s nothing going on, just some maintenance.” He licked his lips. “Really, we just need to ask Daniel a question. Can you ask him to come out here?” He glanced to either side at the security guards. “Everyone just settle down. It’s going to be fine.”
He was lying. Jess was actually a little surprised it wasn’t printed across his forehead, which was shiny with sweat. The administrators behind him looked scared. They were watching the bio alts with a surprising amount of nervousness.
But the bio alts responded to his words and they all sorted themselves out and lined up along the lab tables, watching the displays with curiosity, used to the scientist’s direction and programmed to obey it.
One of them peered at the model of Dev’s brain.
“He’s busy,” Jess repeated. “So that was maintenance, huh?” She glanced up at the lurid yellow lights, still glaring. “Your systems don’t seem to think so. When lights change like that where I come from, we get the guns out.”
“It’s just maintenance,” Doss insisted.
“What’s he busy with?” One of the other scientists asked. “We don’t have any routines running.”
Jess shrugged. “I’m an enforcement agent. I don’t know what all that stuff is. I just know he’s busy, and I’m not gonna bother him.” She smiled. “Neither are you.”
The met
allic voice sounded again. “Emergency stations. Corridor twelve A, minor breach.”
Doss inched forward. “Now, I’m sure you’ll let me contact Daniel. I’m in charge here.”
“Nope.”
“Look, here, Agent...” The other scientist pushed past him. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing but we’ve got to talk to him so—” He got within range, and Jess casually kicked him backwards into Doss and two of the security guards.
“No,” she said, placidly. “I’d go see what’s falling apart on your thing here if I were you. I’ll tell the doc you were here.”
One of the guards lifted his stun stick, and Jess shot it out of his hand with a light touch on her blaster. It clattered to the ground and bounded off, the bio alts jumping out of it’s way as they stared at Jess.
“Don’t do that.” Jess shifted her grip on the gun. “I know the doc’s told you what I do for a living.”
“Agent, please.” Doss bravely moved toward her. “It’s urgent! We need to talk to Doctor Kurok right away!”
“Why?” Jess felt the motion behind her as the door to the programming chamber opened.
“Yes, why?” Kurok came up next to her, wiping his hands on a piece of fabric. “It’s all right, Jesslyn. Why don’t you just go and keep your partner company while she wakes up.”
Wakes up. Jess smiled a little. Wakes up, not comes up. He’d done it. “Sure you want me to do that, Doc?” she asked. “All those zap sticks don’t look too friendly.” She regarded the guards with a squint eyed look.
“It’s fine.” He patted her on the side, a gentle and natural motion she didn’t resent somewhat to her surprise. “Let me find out what all the fuss is about.” He edged past her. “Everyone settle down now, BeeAye, can you bring me that folder?”
“Yes, Doctor Dan.” The bio alt trotted over to the desk, and the anxiety in the room lowered noticeably as the bio alts relaxed, some of them settling down on the benches near the walls.
The security guards, though, were still focused on the tall, dark clad figure behind him, nervously fingering their stun sticks. The two guards who had been knocked down were back up, watching Jess warily.