Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Now the walls were full of faces, staring up at her. After moments hesitation she waved at them then held one hand up, a gesture to wait. Even from where she was she could see the relief.

  Jess then went to the core center, kicked open the hatch, and ducked inside.

  “STAND BY FOR grav,” Dev called out. “Hold! Hold!” She triggered the relays, punching through grid power, slowly amping up.

  Everyone grabbed and settled, and the station rotation kicked in, shoving them into their seats as the power grid lurched back into service and control was returned to consoles across the breadth of central.

  “There is a breech,” a KayTee said. “The vehicle has torn open the bay wall.”

  A BeeAye shook his head. “That is not good. What should we do now, NM-Dev-1?”

  Dev’s eyes locked on the command screen, her fingers moving insistently over the surface. She didn’t hear the request, didn’t even acknowledge she was in the room with others. All she cared about was the unlocking of a locked seal that required level upon level of override because there was danger.

  Danger to station. A section was breeched, and they were in danger of explosive decompression, and seals were designed to stay sealed to protect the rest of station when that happened.

  It took the ultimate code, Doctor Dan’s code, to override it, and she got it typed in just as Jess’s hand touched the seal. It had to open or Jess would die.

  It opened. Alarms sounded. The bio alts around her gasped.

  She got the seal closed again as the pressurization alerts hovered at danger, and the entire structure of the station flexed.

  Sweat stung Dev’s eyes, and she paused to wipe it away. “Seals are back in secure,” she said. “I’m going to release the section blocks.” She set the code in work. “Please try to bring comms up now.”

  “Yes.” A BeeAye next to her tapped confidently. “That was a great danger.”

  “It is secure now.” Dev ran a quick scan then closed off the master ring lock leading to the shuttle bay and secured it with a vaccum warning. “KayTee, please ask for damage control to report.”’

  The KayTee nodded. “Yes. I will release the lock to the crèche as well.”

  The door to central opened, and a moment later a squad of security ran in, with stun sticks ready, hands going to chests.

  Dev stood up. “Stop! We are doing work for station!”

  The guards hesitated. Then a captain entered and pointed. “Take them down,” he ordered. “Until the proctors can get up here. Hurry.”

  The guards acted without questioning, slapping the activators on their chests as Dev sucked in a breath to protest, her body already arching to protest an attack that never came.

  The rest of the bio alts dropped and tumbled out of their chairs. Dev had only a second to decide what to do, and she did, remaining where she was, standing behind the console, her hands resting on the controls.

  One of the guards took a step forward, faced her, and lifted his hand to his chest.

  Dev stared at him. “I would not do that,” she finally said. “My partner is not going to think it’s correct, and I am the only one with command codes here right now.” She pointed at the console. “Station is unstable. It’s not safe.”

  The captain looked around. “Where are all th—” He spotted the limp figure on the couch. “What happened to Doctor Kurok?”

  Doctor Doss came gasping to the door. “Oh!” He stared at the carnage. “What has happened? Where are the...our visitors?”

  The captain was glad of the new arrival. “Doctor Doss! Should we take her down? That one.”

  Doss looked at Dev. “No.” He shook one hand rapidly. “There’s too much in chaos right now. Leave her alone. Let’s not get Interforce angry at us, too.”

  “But—”

  “Just stop!” Doss yelled at the top of his lungs.

  Dev sat back down and started inputting to the console again, her head shaking slightly back and forth, wishing fervently that Jess would return and take charge of things.

  And then, like magic, she was there, coming in the entryway, limping, with flash burns across her face, and to Dev’s eyes the most beautiful thing imaginable.

  She’d risked all of the station to see that face again.

  It had felt nothing but correct.

  “DEVVIE.” JESS CAME around the console and stopped next to her. She put her hands on her hips and looked around. “You okay?”

  Dev thought about that. “Yes,” she replied. “It’s excellent you are here.” She half turned. “Unfortunately we were interrupted in our work.”

  Jess looked at all the slumped bio alts. “Can I ask what the hell is wrong with you people? We’re supposed to be the jerks who fire before we think.” She pointed at herself. “These guys were keeping it all together up here and you zap them?”

  Doctor Doss stood up from examining one of the BeeAyes. “It’s very confusing,” he murmured. “Captain Branks, why did you fire? Were the units misbehaving?”

  “You told us they were dangerous,” the guard captain protested. “You told us!”

  “I told you they were dangerous.” Doss pointed at Jess. “And the other visitors.” He looked around, spotting the bodies against the wall. “And I don’t know where they all...oh.”

  Jess looked amused. “I splatted them,” she said. “So I guess you’re right. I’m dangerous.” She eased over next to Dev and put her hands on her shoulders. “Devvie’s pretty ferocious, too.”

  Dev smiled. She folded her arms over her chest, enjoying the warmth of Jess’s hands on her. She felt tired and let herself relax a little, leaning back against Jess’s body just slightly.

  She glanced to the right where Doctor Dan was still lying still on the couch. Too much too fast, and she didn’t really know what was going on now.

  An alert flashed, and she looked at it. “The master lock at the crèche,” she said. “There is something wrong.”

  Doss hurried over. “Is it sealed? Oh yes, good.” He seemed relieved. “I heard the decompression alert, thank goodness alpha sector was secure.” He paused, belatedly awkward. “I mean—”

  “They gonna get hurt?” Jess asked casually. “Dev’s buds, I mean?”

  “We better make sure the central seals are good,” Doss said. “Good point, Agent. If that seal goes, it could penetrate into central.” He sat down and accessed the pad.

  Jess reached over and logged Dev out. “We’ll go take a look,” she said. “C’mon, Devvie. Let’s go walk about.”

  Doss looked up at them. “Oh! Yes, thank you, Agent. We don’t really have comms up to all the watch stations yet. Yes, thank you very much.”

  “No problem,” Jess drawled.

  The guards stared at them as they went around the console to the half open hatch, slipping through and disappearing from sight.

  “Those men were incorrect,” Dev said, as soon as they were out of hearing range.

  “The guards?”

  “Yes. And Doctor Doss. I feel bad for the KayTees and BeeAyes. They were so happy to do good work.”

  Jess pulled her to a halt around the first bend and wrapped her up in a hug. “They’ll be okay,” she said, in a reassuring tone. “Let’s go get all your buddies out and see if we can get comms downside going. I need to get us a ride.”

  Dev returned the hug. “Are you okay?”

  “Me? Sure.” Jess chuckled. “I’m tough as old boots. They just clipped me a few times.” She carefully removed the dalknife and showed it to Dev. “See that? That’s what made that hole in my back.”

  “That?” Dev looked at the blade in askance. “It looks awful.”

  Jess turned her hand, the obsidian blade with its triangular shape reflecting the lighting faintly. “Yeah. Makes a good souvie.” She carefully put the knife back into one of her pockets. “Bet April’ll appreciate it.”

  Dev looked up at her. “The section blowout was dangerous,” she said. “Really dangerous, Jess.”

&nbs
p; Jess leaned against the station wall. “Where the shuttle was?”

  Dev nodded.

  The pale blue eyes twinkled. “You get that hatch open for me?”

  Dev nodded again. “I did. I had to override the lock out. I was...” She paused and put her hand on Jess’s arm. “I was really worried about you. The section went to vacuum.”

  “I felt it.”

  Dev grimaced. “That must have been very unpleasant.”

  “I wasn’t worried. I knew you’d take care of me.” Jess bumped her gently. “But yeah, it was creepy. Sort of felt like...I walked outside in the white once, when it was maybe down fifty, and it felt like that. Like you’re being flash frozen.”

  “I just barely got grav on,” Dev said. They turned and started walking again, side by side. “I had to use Doctor Dan’s codes to open the hatch.” She added, a little unhappily. “I think it was incorrect. He could get in trouble.”

  “He was lying out cold as a seal’s butt.”

  “Still.”

  “I’ll make sure he’s okay,” Jess said. “He’d have done it. He’s that kinda guy.”

  “I hope so.”

  Jess guided her down toward the service tube to the crèche, already familiar with the station, remembering exactly how to get there. “He gave ya the code, didn’t he?” She glanced at Dev, who nodded. “He knew you’d use it if you had to.”

  “That’s true.”

  They climbed down the ladder on the inside of the service tube, the grav still locked. The air was moving a little, though, Jess felt the faint brush of it against her skin and smell ions in it. She also felt the vibration against the soles of her feet of machinery in motion. It reminded her a little of what it felt like when the turbines were going down at base.

  Or at home.

  Jess paused at the bottom and waited for Dev to join her, examining the echo that word was making in her head, given she hadn’t considered the Bay home for a very long time.

  Just a word?

  Dev went to the huge, sealed lock at the base of the lower levels that held the crèche. She opened the access panel and tapped in a request, the area around them eerily quiet. It was too thick to hear any sound from within, and the desk that usually held security was abandoned.

  Jess came over and waited quietly as she worked.

  “Someone has altered this,” Dev said after a moment. “It wasn’t comp that sealed it.”

  Jess peered over her shoulder. “They think all your buddies are scary?”

  Dev kept tapping. “There are a lot more bio alts than natural born here,” she finally said. “But they have the deactivators.”

  “Mmm.” Jess looked up at the lock as it groaned and clicked, the sound echoing through the lower hall. The round hatch unsealed, and both halves rolled aside, exposing a large crowd of bio alts behind it.

  “Be easy,” Dev said and held her hand up. “We are safe, for now.”

  The crowd shifted and then Gigi ran out toward her. “Oh! Dev!” Her eyes were wide and frightened. “They were going to space us!” She hugged herself with both arms. “We heard them. They recalled us all to the crèche and then locked us in!”

  The bio alts surged forward, peering around. “Where is security?” Gigi asked. “What happened? Do you know? We saw the ship break loose in the dock.”

  Dev opened her mouth to reply when there was a stir in the crowd, and then a small figure squirmed through it, and bolted for them. “Jess!” She reached out to Jess and touched her arm. “Look!”

  “I’m looking.” Jess put her hands on her hips. “As if this needed to get any more complicated.”

  “Auntie Jess!” Tayler bawled, dashing over to her and throwing his arms around her legs. “Auntie Jess!”

  He was dressed in a bio alt jumpsuit, his hair trimmed neatly and close to his head like theirs were. Jess went down on one knee to return the hug. “Hey, Tayler.” She patted his back. “Whatcha doing up here, huh? Where’s your mom?”

  “Dunno.” Tayler looked up at her. “They wouldn’t let me go to school, Auntie! They made me come here.” He sniffled a little. “I don like it. Wanna go home.”

  The bio alts all watched quietly. Now that the hatch was open, they had calmed, and many of them came out into the central hall and looked around the security stations with some curiosity.

  Jess sighed. “Don’t worry, Tay. We’ll get you where you need to go.” She felt a little awkward now about what she’d done to Jimmy. Not because he hadn’t deserved it, but because she now had to explain to this little moppet he wasn’t going to go back home in any meaningful sense.

  “Glad you’re here, Auntie Jess,” Tayler said then paused and looked up at the quietly watching Dev. “I member you. You had the bear vid.”

  Dev smiled at him. “Yes, I did. Have you had fun on station, Tayler? When you saw the bear vid, we were at your home. This is where I came from.”

  Tayler was immediately distracted, and he released Jess, coming over to stand next to Dev instead. “Yeah?”

  “He is your relation, Agent Drake?” Gigi asked.

  “My nephew. Son of my brother.” Jess stood up. “How long has he been here, you know?” She asked in a casual tone.

  Gigi considered the question. “One and a half months I think?” she said. “He arrived on shuttle, and Doctor Doss said it was a new program, to study the differences between natural born and bio alt children.”

  Jess’s eyes narrowed a little. “You have natural born kids up here. Why bring one up from downside?”

  Gigi answered readily. “Doctor Doss said it was because downside natural born have a much different way of learning and growing up. Except it wasn’t very successful.” She looked a bit embarrassed. “This subject was not very obedient.”

  Jess smiled. “No, he wouldn’t be. He’s a Drake.”

  “He kept trying to get out of the crèche. The security guards were always having to run around and find him.” Gigi said. “Doctor Doss was very concerned when he found out you were going to visit. He said he didn’t want to disrupt the study.”

  “He did, huh?” Jess looked over past Gigi to where Dev watched her, a noncommittal expression on her face. “I guess that’s why he didn’t tell me Tayler was here. Huh?”

  Gigi nodded. “Yes. He said it would disrupt things. He was actually a little upset with Doctor Kurok for having you and NMDev-1 arrive when you did.” She looked a little apologetic. “But it seems correct, and I am glad you have found him well.”

  Jess regarded little Tayler, who should be getting his indoctrination sessions out at the Interforce Basic school, and was unaccountably here, in space, dressed like a bio alt. “Yeah,” she said. “No problem. We’ll get him sorted out.” She reached over to ruffle Tayler’s hair. “He come up here by himself?”

  “Yes,” Gigi said. “We thought he was really brave.”

  Tayler turned and grinned at her, recognizing the word and its direction at himself. “Where I’m from, everybody’s like that.”

  Dev rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I think we should all go out and see where we can help repair things,” she said to the watching sets who nodded. “Now that grav and power are back.”

  “Yes,” Gigi agreed. “Please move to stations.” She turned and lifted her voice. “We need to help.”

  “The tubes are down,” Dev warned.

  The sets nearby heard her, and passed the word along, and the flood of bodies started to move out and into the branching corridors.

  Gigi watched them go. “What are you going to do now?” she asked Dev.

  “We’re going to go up to the doc’s lab,” Jess answered. “I think we left something up there when we all rushed down to help out.”

  “Yes,” Dev said. “Tayler would you like to come with us?”

  “Sure,” Tayler said. “I’m gonna stay with Auntie Jess.” He reached up to take hold of Jess’s hand, and they slowly backed away from the entrance to the crèche as the flood of bio alts increased, a
ll intent on getting back to work.

  “This seems incorrect,” Dev said as they started for the tubeway to the upper levels.

  “Ya think?” Jess said wryly. “Let’s go get a message sent then go pick up the doc. Less he’s near that rotter the better.”

  “Yes.”

  DOCTOR DAN’S LAB was very quiet. Dev felt relieved when they went inside, and the doors slid shut behind them. She watched Tayler run over to the models and stand on his tiptoes to look inside. “He looks a bit like you.”

  Jess was behind the main console, pecking at the control surface. She looked up and over it at Dev. “Yeah.” She looked back down. “This is crock, Devvie. I can’t do anything with it.”

  Dev came over and joined her and took the stool next to her. She leaned on the console. “The transmitter is down. See, here.” She pointed at the screen. “All those pending messages are waiting in queue.”

  “Fix it?” Jess slid out of the seat and offered it to her.

  “I don’t think we can from here.” Dev took over the input pad. “The transmitters need the station to be on exact sync to go online. With all the disruption, that will not happen in the short term.”

  Jess frowned. “You can’t do it manually?”

  Dev looked at her. “Position station? No. I don’t think even Doctor Dan could do that.”

  “Crap. I should have taken over that shuttle.” Jess sighed. “With my luck when they arrived no one triggered the emergency recall because that bastard Doss is in with them.”

  “I’ll check.” Dev got busy at the console.

  Jess watched her for a minute then went over to where Tayler was climbing on the table next to the models to get a better look. “Hey, Tay.”

  He had both hands on the glass and looked inside. “What’s this?”

  “That’s the inside of someone’s head,” Jess said. “You want a drink?”

  “Oh, yeah!” he answered immediately. “Don’t like the stuff they have here.”

  “Nah me neither.” Jess went over to the drink dispenser and looked inside. There were small, sealed cannisters of kack and she smiled in surprise, recognizing them. “And neither did the doc.” She took out three of them and opened one, handing it to him. “There ya go.”