Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Dev considered that. “Hmm.” She turned and headed back into the lab, leaving Jess to chuckle behind her and go back to jabbing the controls.

  “What are you doing?” a KayTee asked, watching Jess poke at things.

  “Trying to annoy this thing enough that it will give up and let us out,” Jess replied cordially. “Got any ideas on how to hack it?”

  The KayTee regarded her with a serious expression. “We are not programmed to do that.”

  “Dev wasn’t programmed to fly through a mountain. C’mon. You all want to be like her? Think outside the box.”

  Another KayTee came up next to them. “What box? There are no boxes here.” He observed the pad. “The safety systems are secure, and we do not have access to them.” He sounded regretful. “But I don’t think hitting them will do useful things.”

  Jess exhaled and rolled her eyes. “What’ll happen if I blast it?”

  Both KayTees stepped back at once.

  “Okay. Clear enough.” Jess moved over and opened a panel instead, studying the mechanics behind it. They were thick and appeared pneumatic, huge struts designed to keep the circular seal closed. “What about that?”

  DOCTOR DAN WAS standing over one of the consoles and Dev went over to join him. “Is there something else I can do to help you?” she asked, giving the scientists hovering nearby a wary look. “Jess seems to think there is something urgent to attend to outside this section.”

  “Oh she does, huh?” Kurok smiled. “Well, we probably should pay attention then because that never meant anything good when I used to be in that business.”

  Doss was hovering. “Is it ready yet, Daniel?”

  “Not yet.” Kurok edged to one side. “See if you can get your hand in there, Dev. Mine’s too big.” He indicated the control panel. “It’s the intersection crossconnect, I think twenty-four B.”

  Willingly, Dev set her scanner down and got her light back out of her pocket, directing the beam into the hatch where there was a ripple of colored circuits. “I can,” she said. “What is...oh, I see.” She put the light between her teeth again and reached inside, setting the board switches with a confident touch. “There. Is that it?”

  “Perfect.” Doctor Dan ran a routine and the console booted, this time with a rising hum as boards on either side came to life. “Good job, Dev.”

  “Daniel,” Doss said. “There is no way this unit was given that.”

  “No.” Doctor Dan said in a quiet tone. “Dev wasn’t given that. She just knows how to do this. Just like I do.” He closed the hatch and pulled an input pad over. “And stop calling her the unit, or I’ll kick you in the groin.”

  Doss jerked backward a step. “Daniel. That’s uncalled for.”

  “Yes, probably. Kicks in the groin are seldom called for since they’re so damned uncomfortable,” Kurok muttered as he worked over the console. “Oh, hell. They took central offline. For crying out loud, Randall, couldn’t you at least keep them in their damn ship?”

  “Daniel, they just wanted to talk to us!” Doss’s voice lifted in frustration. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you!”

  Kurok pulled the hand blaster out of the pocket in his jacket. “Let’s go, Dev. Maybe we can get that hatch open now and let your friend out before she damages something.” He looked back at Doss. “Stay here. Keep the hatches shut when we leave. You’ll be safe in here.”

  “Where are you going?” Doss asked in a somber voice. “Daniel, please. Let’s just go talk to them. I’m positive this is just a misunderstanding.”

  Kurok regarded him. “Randall, I can’t go talk to them. They’ll shoot me. Just like they’ll shoot Agent Drake if they find her, and for more or less the same reason.”

  Doss looked disturbed. “I don’t understand. You’re a scientist. Why would they want to shoot you? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “This needs to wait,” Jess said, coming up on the other side of the console. “C’mon, Doc. We’re outta time. I can hear blast return outside and your name’s all over this lab. They come in the door they’re gonna splat your buddies, so we need to scram, like now.”

  Kurok sighed. “Later,” he said. “If there is a later.” He started for the door, and Dev and Jess joined him. They went out into the outer chamber again and went to the door. “Look out folks. Let us through.”

  His name was whispered and carried back as the emergency lighting brightened. “All right now, just let me get at...ah, yes you have it open.” He went to the panel. “Okay let me just make sure we don’t have ammonia on the other side of this.”

  “It’s clear,” Dev said. “Standard atmosphere mix, nothing toxic.”

  He smiled his gentle smile at her. “Thank you, Dev.” He started the manual process to open the hatch. “Stand back, everyone. Get behind me. In fact, everyone go back inside the lab. I don’t want you getting injured.”

  The bio alts clustered around them instead. “Doctor Dan, can we go with you?” a KayTee asked. “We want to help and do good work.”

  Kurok turned, his hand hovering over the access pad. “Lads, this is going to be dangerous, you could take harm. Stay behind. Be safe.”

  “That’s okay. We understand,” a second KayTee said, immediately. “We could be made dead, but we want to help.” He waved the others forward. “We saw the vid of what NM-Dev-1 did. You said it was very good work.”

  Jess chuckled, low and inside her throat. “Hoisted.”

  “Yes, it was.” Kurok lifted a hand. “But that is not what we’re doing here.”

  “We want to do good work like NM-Dev-1,” a BeeAye insisted. “Please let us help you.” He turned as the rest of the bio alts in the outer chamber pressed closer. “Please, Doctor Dan?”

  “Let ’em,” Jess said. “If nothing else we can use them for camo.”

  “Jesslyn.”

  “Doc, all three of us are pretty distinctive. Having some native cover might help.” Jess stared at him, her tone serious. “Everyone on this thing’s in danger right now.”

  It was true. He knew it. There was also something still inside him that responded to the leadership of someone dressed in that black suit, gun held so casually in one hand. To someone who had this just as firmly built into who they were as any of the bios begging to join them.

  Ah, hell.

  Doctor Dan sighed then put his hand on the pad. “All right. Come along with us, but stay behind us and keep quiet.”

  The big lock clicked and shuddered as the pad turned green and slowly retracted, revealing a quiet, empty tube beyond and the sound of blaster fire and screams in the distance.

  Jess started to move. “Let’s go. Devvie, start scanning.”

  “No bio targets next thousand meters.”

  THE UPPER LEVELS of the station were empty. Only emergency lighting was visible, save the blast of regular light from the lab they’d left behind them. The drop tubes were red lit and locked off.

  “No null,” Kurok said as they passed one. “That means you step inside you drop the distance.”

  “Nice.” Jess looked at it. “How do we get down?”

  They approached the inner core of the station through cross paths and tubes that were eerie in their silence. Only creaks and craklings sounded around them, the station protesting its disruption.

  “There are service access hatches in the core.” Dev said. She adjusted her scanner.

  “Yes,” one of the KayTees said. “We use them.”

  Kurok looked at him in surprise. “You do?”

  “Over here.” Dev pointed at the hatch. “That one goes to central if I remember correctly.”

  “Yes,” the KayTee said. “I have a manual key.” He pulled something from the belt at his waist and went to the wall. “Please watch for anyone,” he asked the rest of the bio alts who spread out and started looking around.

  Kurok looked at Dev. “I think I’m about to get some unexpected education.”

  The KayTee opened the hatch and pulled it back. “That
will take us to central, and we can also access the crèche. We should go quickly.”

  “Yes,” Dev said. “There are non-station biologic approaching.” She slung the scanner over her shoulder. “Everyone should go inside and start down.” She ducked inside the hatch and disappeared. The rest of the bio alts immediately moved after her.

  Jess grinned. “After you, Doc.”

  He sighed and shoved the blaster into his front pocket. “We should have gone first. We’ve got the guns.”

  “Been trying to impress that on Dev for six months now.” Jess pulled the hatch closed after her as they moved inside the core of the station, finding a metal ladder leading downward that was the twin of every ladder in every human built system she’d ever been in.

  The bio alts moved down quickly, some just using hand grips and letting their legs dangle. They were all adept, and Jess moved to the side of the ladder fitting her tall form between it and the mechanism in the core. “Lemme see if I can get up in front.”

  Before Kurok could answer, she started dropping down the side of the ladder faster than even the bios could manage, snaking past them as she let gravity pull her body downward.

  Ahead of her, at the front, she saw Dev pause and reach for her scanner. Jess responded to instinct and just let go of the ladder to plummet downward, her hand already pulling her blaster from its holder at her hip.

  DEV REACHED THE central level and stepped off the ladder, moving onto the metal grid flooring that led toward the hatches that would let them back out into the main part of station. She heard a knocking sound and pulled her scanner off her shoulder and brought it around.

  With a startling boom the hatch opened ahead of her and a figure entered, outlined in the emergency light from outside. She saw a blaster.

  She started to drop to one knee when she saw the pre-aim splash, but then there was a sense of motion and a loud boom as Jess landed in front of her. The energy release from Jess’s blaster impacted the intruder before they could get a shot off.

  The figure rocked backwards, then a moment later Jess pounced on them. The gun in the intruder’s hand was knocked free and tumbled down through the central core to clatter on impact far below.

  There was a cracking sound, and the intruder followed, a limp body that tumbled past the grid and slammed into structural support on its way down.

  Jess went to the hatch and peered cautiously through it then stepped back and pulled it closed. “Must have heard us in here.”

  One of the KayTees went to the edge of the grid and looked down. “You made him dead? That was a security guard.”

  “I made him dead. He was pointing a weapon at the wrong thing.” Jess holstered her blaster. “Let’s wait for the rest of the gang to get down here, and then we can go out.” She glanced behind her. “You okay, Devvie?”

  “Excellent, thank you.” Dev joined her. “I think that person was going to shoot me.”

  “He was.” Jess jumped up and down a little, shaking her arms to loosen up her muscles. “Stupid little bastard. Probably had no idea what he was aiming at. Thought you were a bad guy.”

  “You made the guard dead because he was potentially going to harm NM-Dev-1?” one of the BeeAyes asked. “Even though he was a natural born?”

  Jess turned to him. “Yes. In my world there are good guys, bad guys, and innocent bystanders. We’re supposed to protect the good guys, kill the bad guys, and try to avoid splatting too many innocent bystanders.”

  “I see,” the BeeAye said.

  Jess smiled at him. “You volunteered to be a good guy.”

  The platform was getting crowded as the dozen bio alts and Kurok made their way down. Jess backed up until she was at the hatch.

  “Okay.” Kurok eased his way between the bios and caught up to them. “Now, when we go out there, we’ll be in view. So I’d like everyone to be very careful, and if I tell you to lie down, please do that at once.”

  Jess eyed him.

  “Not you.” Kurok chuckled wryly. “Dev, can you please confirm if we have anything out there?”

  Dev was already scanning and stepped to the edge of the platform near the hatch. She tuned the scanner carefully, getting a wiremap of the area outside the core. “There is security there,” she said. “They appear to be searching.”

  “Our security?” Doctor Dan came over and examined the screen. “Hmm.”

  The bio alts just waited quietly, most of them watching Jess with interest as she warmed up, making little boxing motions with her hands.

  “Let me pop out there and speak with them,” Kurok said. “It’s just possible they’ll tell me what’s going on.”

  “It’s also possible they’ll plug ya,” Jess said. “Depends what bozo up there told them.”

  “Well, we can’t just stay in here,” Kurok said, “and all the systems we need to bring us back online are in central so...” He went to the hatch and listened then unlatched it and pushed it open before Jess could stop him. He stepped outside and closed the access just as she reached it.

  “You little...” Jess paused and went silent, holding her hand up. “Quiet.” She pressed the side of her face against the metal, sealing her ear as she used the surface to amplify the sound outside.

  Quiet voices. “Yes, Doctor Kurok, we know but—”

  Kurok’s response wasn’t audible. But they hadn’t shot him on sight, and that she considered a good sign.

  “Can you come with us to security control? My captain said—”

  “I have some sets with me.” Now Kurok’s voice was audible. “They’re frightened. Let me bring them out and we can go to control.”

  “Jess, energy uplift,” Dev said, urgently.

  “Yeah.” Jess opened the hatch and hopped outside. She let her senses sweep the area, her blaster in her hand as she pushed Kurok down, found her targets and was shooting.

  “Get down!” she yelled at the guards, sensing motion at her back. “Dev, stay in there!” She got in front of Kurok and dropped to her knees, finding and shooting targets as fast as she could once the security guards bowed to better judgement and dove for the ground.

  Fire came back at her, but she intercepted it with skill. She heard one body tumble to the deck and the crunch of armored plate against metal.

  “Six of them, Jess.” Dev was on the ground behind her. “Three in the upper mesh, now two in the hallway to central at your ten.”

  Kurok crouched, one hand on Dev’s back. “BeeAyes and KayTees stay where you are,” he bellowed behind him. “Stay down!”

  But the door bumped open and the sets poured out, surrounding them as they crouched there. “Doctor Dan! There is venting!” one of the KayTees pointed to the clear surface of the station wall. “Look!”

  “Shit.” Kurok ducked as a blast got past Jess and hit the railing. “Jess! We got problems!”

  “Let me get rid of these then.” Jess hauled up and bolted forward, coming up to speed as she headed for the hallway where fire was emerging. She ducked and hopped as she ran, bolts hitting the walls and floors in an attempt to stop her.

  Halfway across she let out a yell, laying down fire ahead of her path as she came around the curve and saw the two enemy agents, already standing up and getting ready to run as she came at them.

  They were in fully armored suits, and she got one brief look at one eye widening before she blew the helmet off one of them and his head disintegrated. He slammed back against the corridor wall and slid down it, his entire body shuddering not realizing yet it was dead.

  The second lifted his blaster, but she was already on him. She slammed into him and smashed the gun against the wall as he tried to free his hands to grab her.

  She holstered her blaster and went at him, catching the edges of his armor with her fingertips and prying it open, letting out another booming roar as her forward momentum took him to the ground.

  He tried to kick out, but she had her knee on his chest as she ripped the armor off and got her hands around his neck. Sh
e clamped down and her fingers closed like a vise around his windpipe.

  Cartilage crushed under the force like it was light plastic, and then she felt the convulsions as he stopped being able to breathe.

  Yells behind her.

  Jess yanked her hands back and felt skin and trachea come free. She shook her hands to clear the blood from them as she turned and surged back into the central area.

  Three enemy heading for where Dev was.

  Jess yanked out her blaster and started firing. They turned, diving behind a console.

  “Jess! Don’t shoot that!” Kurok bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Everyone stay the hell down!”

  One of the enemy came up over the console and braced his arms on it, aiming his blaster at Jess and firing point blank as she came barreling at him.

  She launched into the air and the blast went under her. She tumbled into a twisting target that edged and avoided three other bolts that came from the other soldiers, and then she was among them, fighting close in with a scramble of arms and legs and guns being used as hammers.

  Jess disappeared under the enemy and Dev put her scanner down and rose up, evading Doctor Dan’s quick grab as she bolted across the floor toward the console.

  She ducked around the console and started grabbing hold of whatever she could.

  A moment later Doctor Dan led the sets to join her, and they were all in the midst of a flailing, dangerous melee.

  Jess had one in a headlock and the sets piled on a second that Dev had yanked clear. Doctor Dan knelt on the third’s chest, his blaster pointed right between the soldier’s eyes.

  The security guards came running over.

  Then there was a sodden crack, and Jess climbed up over a dead body with a broken neck. She pointed her blaster at the guards. “No zaps!” she warned them. “Anyone touches a weapon, you code as bad guys, and I kill you.”

  The guards went still and held their hands out, empty. “Okay we got it,” the nearest one to her said. “You’re Interforce ops. We got it.”