Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Surprised to see him, they paused, seeing the carnage. “Doctor Dan,” Cathy said. “We were so afraid you’d gotten hurt.” She had a hammer in her hand, apparently ready to use it. “What’s go...oh.” She paused. “What is that? Who are those people?”

  Kurok looked back at the melee. “Those people are what Randall Doss wanted to sell to the other side, actually. But there’s really no time to talk about that. You’ll get to see them close up soon enough.”

  “Doctor Dan, Jess said to bring you and Tayler and the people here to the shuttle,” Dev said. “We have to go quickly.”

  “Yeah,” Doug agreed. “Before the yonks start tearing apart the station once they’re finished with those guys, y’know?” He glanced past into the lab. “We got room for two-hundred.”

  It was all happening too fast. “Cathy, let’s get everyone from the lab to the shuttle zone.” Kurok said, in a determinedly calm voice. “I have to shut down the systems.”

  “Understood, doctor.” Cathy ducked back inside, calling to the two other lab assistants as she squirmed through the now excited bio alts. “Everyone line up! We’re going to go with Doctor Dan!”

  He got through the crowd and went to his office and sat behind his desk. Dev and Doug had followed him in, and were now seated across from him, just waiting. They had oil smudges on them, and Doug was bruised and hollow eyed.

  “Anything we can do to help?” Doug asked, pointing to himself and then at Dev. “Or really,” he pointed at Dev again.

  “Not really.” Kurok called up all the schemas. “Most of this is scripted. It’s not like I hadn’t thought about coming to this moment.”

  Dev had her scanner out and was focused on it. “There are power fluctuations going on.”

  “Yes, I know,” Kurok murmured. “Damn it.”

  A moment later, Jess was filling the doorway, bringing a scent of blood with her. “Gotta move, Doc.”

  “Yes, just getting rid of any evidence.” Kurok was busy with his pad. “Thank you, by the way. I was about to get definitively squashed in a particularly grandstanding way.”

  “Heard ya.” Jess looked behind her. The crowd of bio alts were rapidly depleting, and Tayler had already been picked up by a cousin and carried out. The guards were taken care of, the outer area scattered with bodies and the rest escaped into passageways screaming in fear.

  Truly screaming. Running as fast as they could to get away from the butchers lunging after them.

  She was aware of time ticking. “Doc?”

  “Finished.” Kurok got up and then paused. “But you could go on with out me, Jess. I still have responsibility here.”

  “No.”

  “Jesslyn.”

  “They’ll kill you. What would the point be?” Jess said. “They’ve got six monitors from the other side here. Ya see them? They probably got comms off before they were ripped apart by my cousins.” She motioned them all forward. “Let’s go. “

  Dev and Doug moved outside. Jess remained in the doorway. Kurok hesitated behind his desk. “Doc.”

  He sighed. “All those children I’d leave behind,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if I can, Jess.”

  Jess regarded him in silence for a moment then extended her hand. “You gave them the best chance you could. We killed most of the witnesses,” she said. “Come with us, we’re taking some kids, too. They’ll need you down there.”

  He sighed again.

  “Besides, you probably know how to fly the shuttle.” Jess went on. “April skunked all the pilots. It’s kinda up to Dev.” She wiggled her fingers. “C’mon. She could use a hand.”

  “Shit.” He reached into a small cabinet near the desk and removed a large, patched, well worn pack that he slipped onto his back. “I hope I got all the vid. Especially of me blasting Doss’s head off.”

  “That was a nice shot,” Jess said. “Bastard deserved it.”

  Kurok sighed. “No one ever deserves death, Jesslyn. They’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Jess put a hand on his back and guided him to the door. “You know better than most,” she said. “That’s horse shit.”

  They left the lab and crossed the floor of the now empty space, and as they reached the edge he turned and looked at it, then shook his head and followed Jess out and into the central hall.

  Carnage. There were bodies all over the floor, all in security jumpsuits. Some interspersed with the neutral clothes of station operations and two of the dark figures that were the monitors from the other side, who really weren’t anything of the sort.

  Spies. But they had a business relationship, and Kurok figured that was who had brokered the deal, and he barely glanced at them as he and Jess passed them by. The troops from the Bay were already gone, and now all that moved were a few bio alt sets, looking at all the mess in deep confusion.

  Despair really.

  “Take them all to the disposal stations, lads,” Kurok said. “Don’t worry. Things will be back to normal soon.”

  “Thank you, Doctor Dan,” one of them said, with a wan sort of wave. “Goodbye. We will try to do good work. Please be safe.”

  They knew. “I will, and you, too.” Kurok put it out of his mind but he, too, knew. He knew horrible things were going to happen to these sets, all of them under the taint of his machinations. “Wish I could take all of them with me.”

  “Yeah.” Jess glanced at them. “Sucks.”

  They walked side by side up the hall. “Anxious to get home?” he asked, finally.

  “Anxious to unfuck my fuckup,” Jess responded tersely. “They offed around two-hundred.”

  “Dev told me. Sorry, Jess.”

  She shook her head. “Let’s just get the hell out of here.”

  Kurok was glad the halls were empty. Everywhere he looked was just space, empty tubes, no sound at all of work or motion or people. He really didn’t know if they were all just in lockdown, or what, since he’d deactivated pretty much everything including internal comms.

  He remembered, suddenly, his arrival on station. All those years ago when he’d traded one life for another, half his thoughts on the future and half on the past.

  Now an echo of his past walked alongside him, and those two lives were coming together again, and he tried to decide exactly how he felt about it.

  Torn. He had to admit to himself. Torn between the agony of leaving behind everything he had created here and the almost shameful relief he felt in the sense he was going home.

  Home was downworld. Home was storms, and water, and the harshness of icy wet air, and in some way Drakes and Drake’s Bay, even though he’d been hated there for being one of the enemy.

  Even being a tech and Justin’s friend, it was written so deep in them. He glanced at Jess. In them, but not in her, because Jess trusted wholly in her father’s judgment.

  Ironic.

  They reached the shuttle area and found April waiting, her gun resting on her shoulder.

  “How we doing?” Jess asked.

  “All onboard,” she said. “You done?”

  “Done.” Jess said.

  “Y’know bringing those bios with us is jackass,” April said. “Should not have. Don’t appreciate it since I broke my ass getting that thing up here.”

  Jess pushed past her. “Let’s fight about that later.” She half turned and looked past them, finding no sign of anyone looking back at them. “Let’s just see if we can make it back.” She continued down the tube toward the shuttle.

  April looked at Kurok, who had turned to take one last scan of station. His eyes met hers. “They’re worth something, you know,” he said. “And I suspect you believe Dev is.”

  “You’re worth something. She is.” April conceded. “The rest of them will probably be chum by the time that thing gets down. If it does.” She pulled the gun down as they followed Jess. “Jackass.” She shook her head.

  “Wouldn’t bet on that,” Kurok said. “Drakes are many things, but they’re neither sentimental
nor stupid.”

  “Mmph.” April grunted.

  DEV SPENT SEVERAL minutes just sitting in the seat of the control station in the shuttle. The position was large and far more padded than the one in the carrier, and it was tilted just slightly back. It was comfortable, but she took no comfort from it, since it was all very strange to her eyes.

  She had, she realized, zero programming about the craft, and Doug seated next to her was wide eyed and staring. “Hmm.”

  “Fuckin’ hmm,” Doug said. “You even know what to start with?”

  “They never give bio alts any programming about shuttles,” Dev said. “I think they’re...” She paused. “They didn’t want us to know about them.” She drew the restraints down and fastened them around her and angled the seat forward so she could reach the controls. “But there has to be some logic to it.”

  “Are you just going to start punching buttons until something lights?” Doug asked in a mildly alarmed tone. “Like a rocket, Rocket?”

  “Possibly.” Dev rested her hands on the control surfaces. She looked at him. “Unless you have a more efficient suggestion?”

  Doug shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. “Not me. I got top marks in wrenching, but I had to take flight dynamics three times to pass. Not my gig.”

  Dev figured that was the case. She inspected the panels, then watched alertly as one of the red lights on the one near her left hand went out. “I think they have sealed the door,” she said. “I hope that is a positive event.”

  “I’ll go see if everyone’s on or if someone did something stupid. I’m not leaving April in a tube.” Doug scrambled for the door and ducked outside. “Much as she’d prefer not to ride back.” He closed the hatch behind him and it sealed, compressing the air a little.

  Now that Dev was alone with the shuttle, she tentatively pushed a button. After a moment, the panel to her right lit up and she heard the faint whine of systems coming live. “Fortunate guess,” she muttered.

  There was a helmet, not an ear cup, and she settled it onto her head, hearing the murmurs of various things reporting. She pressed another key, and the board to her left lit up. Then the seat she was in shifted and the restraints tightened.

  “Another fortunate guess.” Dev studied the results, carefully reviewing the control surfaces and deciding she did, in fact, know which controls were for the maneuvering jets.

  She hoped.

  Plasma ignitors entering prestage warmup, the vehicle whispered into her ear. Stand by to test seals. Energy levels to twelve point two, section seals in work.

  She was tired. They hadn’t gotten any rest in many, many hours, and she was hungry. She wanted to be gone from the station, no matter that returning downside promised nothing but more trouble, and there were still parts of her a little tender where her uniform rubbed the back of her neck.

  Everything seemed very incorrect. So many people had gotten hurt, or made dead, and they had a little over two hundred of the sets onboard, all crammed into a space, all nervous.

  All wanting to go but not go. Afraid of the change, but holding on to the notion that they were there with Doctor Dan, and he’d make it right. Dev exhaled. If he could. If she could, with this strange craft she was poking at.

  “Okay, we’re all onboard. Doc and Jess just closed it up.” Doug returned to the cockpit and resumed the other seat. “April’s really pissed off.”

  “Well, this would be easier if we had pilots,” Dev said. “So I am sorry if she is not pleased, but that did not make it better.”

  Doug grunted. “Yeah, probably,” he said. “But they were skunks, and we’d probably have had to put a gun to their heads to get them to do anything anyway.”

  “I see.”

  “They were talking to that other shuttle and trying to figure out how to screw us up,” Doug said. “They said they got paid better by the other side.”

  Dev regarded him with some surprise. “For the supplies?”

  “Nah. For contraband. Had a good market here.”

  The door to the cockpit opened and Jess stuck her head in. “Hey.”

  “Hello.” Dev cautiously activated the pre-start for the maneuvering jets. “Did someone disconnect this vehicle? I don’t want to attempt to move otherwise.”

  Jess had taken a breath to say something, now she just grunted, turned and left again, slamming the door behind her.

  “Guess everyone’s pissed off,” Doug said. “What happens if they have to do it from the outside like they did when we came in?”

  “I can make the shuttle break loose.” Dev responded. “But it will do a lot of damage and possibly cause some for us—” She heard yelling outside the door and she and Doug exchanged glances. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  With an abrupt motion Dev released her restraints and got up, leaving the helmet on the seat before going to the door and shoving it open.

  Outside there was an argument going on. Jess and April were facing off with one of the people from Drake’s Bay and one of the lab assistants from Doctor Dan’s lab. Dev went over to Jess and touched her arm.

  Jess paused and looked at her.

  “What’s going on?” Dev asked. “I thought we wanted to leave quickly?”

  “Well we can’t, as you reminded me.” Jess said. “We’re still tied up to this damned thing.”

  “I can rip free,” Dev said, quietly. “But it might be dangerous.”

  “More dangerous than being in a tin can hanging off a busted station in the creepiness of space?” Jess asked. “G’wan. Risk it.”

  “And kill all these poor bastards you waited so long to save?” April grumbled. “Why not just blow the whole damn thing up?”

  “Enough,” Jess barked loudly. “Let’s wait to get out of here before we all start acting like assholes.” She turned to Dev. “Do what you have to, Dev. I’m going to go make sure everything’s tied down.”

  Doctor Dan appeared, looking as tired and upset as Dev felt. “I think I can help. Let’s go to the control room, Dev. If I can communicate to station, I can get the locks released. Since they’re so locked down they can’t.”

  “Thanks, doc.” Jess pressed against the bulkhead to let him and Dev pass, then moved off in another direction.

  “Thanks, Doctor Dan.” Dev led him back to the cockpit, leaving the rest of them behind. “I’m not really sure of how to do this,” she admitted. “A lot of this is really strange.”

  Kurok patted her on the back. “We’ll sort it out, Dev. Anything to keep my mind of leaving everyone back there.”

  More unhappiness. Dev got back in the seat and put the helmet back on. She moved to one side to let Doctor Dan get to the machinery. “I have the engine systems started,” she said. “And the plasma ignitors in prep.”

  “So you do.” Kurok sat down on a jumpseat next to the comms board. “I know some of the boards here, Dev. We’ll do it together.”

  Doug got up. “Want to sit here?”

  Kurok waved him back. “Let’s take the opportunity for everyone to learn, shall we?”

  Doug sat back down. “Sure.” He put on the restraints. “Might as well learn something before we blow up getting down.”

  THE CARGO HOLD was a disaster waiting to happen. Jess glared dourly at the interior of it, filled with terrified bio alts and Bay personnel.

  April was right. This was idiotic. She shouldn’t have done it, and what made it worse was she couldn’t actually articulate why she had.

  The cargo area wasn’t meant for passengers. It had a multitude of strapping and tie downs, though, and they had made the best of that, bios snugged in groups next to each other with the sturdy plas over them to keep them in place. Those from the Bay in makeshift restraints.

  The homesteaders were in a pretty good mood, given everything. Most of them were talking about the fight. When they looked up and saw her, they waved in cheerful good nature.

  Jess lifted a hand and waved back

  There was a small area for ridi
ng crew and an even smaller area for critical cargo. That was about it. “Fuck.”

  Jake was at her side. “Clusterfuck.”

  “Yeah,” Jess said. “Let’s just get it over with.”

  Jake didn’t respond to that. He just took a breath and released it. There was a lurid bruise across his left cheek, and he held his arm at an awkward angle. “There a point?” he finally asked.

  Jess shrugged.

  Jake also shrugged. “Ah, couple of hours won’t make a craps difference anyway,” he said. “What the fuck. At least we got Tay back and had a good fight.”

  “They knew you all took the shuttle?” Jess asked after a long pause.

  He nodded. “Oh yeah. I got that stupid bastard you left in charge in the eyeball with a fish pike on my way to the ramp.” He reflected on that. “Felt pretty good actually.”

  Jess managed a wry, tight smile. “Finally came into that Drake heritage, huh?”

  He considered that for a moment, then smiled back. “Yeah, maybe. I was just so mad I forgot to worry about anything else.” He kicked the edge of the cargo entryway with the toe of his boot. “Felt like...I don’t know.”

  “Felt like riding a wave down into the rocks and not caring,” Jess said. “We all have it, Jake. In or out just a matter of degree.”

  “Mmm.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Didn’t feel bad. I liked it. Got my frustration out anyway.”

  “Why come get me then?” Jess asked, as she felt a rumbling vibration start under her boots. “Fucking finish it on your own, Jake. Maybe that’s your place anyway.” She folded her arms. “I’d have probably splatted up here.”

  Jake looked at her. “You really don’t know?” He sounded honestly surprised. “Fish pikes against long rifles? WTF, Jess?” He turned to face her. “You need to kick that off. Did you really not know that? Not know it has to be the Drake who does that?” He watched her face. “Oh shit you really didn’t.”

  “No,” Jess said after a long awkward pause. “Why the hell would I? No one ever told me.”

  The shuttle shifted gently. “I better go see if we’re going to kill ourselves now or a little later.” She pushed back from the doorway. “At least Dev figured out how to make this thing move.”