Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3)

by Melissa Good

  Doug chuckled. “I sense a frustrated present opportunity.” He winked at Dev. “Nice suit.”

  Dev grinned and went back to her tray.

  “Just for that, I see surfing in your future,” Jess mock growled.

  Brent had taken a seat next to Jason. They were conversing in low tones, heads together. Dev caught the change of expression on Brent’s face, going from casual to startled and then dismayed. She wondered what was going on.

  A sideways glance showed Jess to be relaxed and at her ease, though, so she went back to consuming her meal and made a mental note to ask Brent later what was so disturbing.

  “So how’s the new bus?” April asked Doug. “Are the seats actually attached to the deck, or are we going to go flying the first time you put the brakes on?”

  Brent got up, put his tray in the dispenser, then walked out in silence.

  Jason exchanged looks with Jess and shrugged a little. “Backhanded compliment,” he said, going back to his tray. “I guess.”

  April glanced from one of them to the other then at Doug in question. Doug shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. He looked over at Dev, who likewise produced a bewildered look.

  Jess belatedly realized all this silent WTF’edness in her presence. “Jason’s been promoted to Station Director,” she said. “Means he’s got to hook Brent up with someone else as a tech.”

  “Oh,” Both April and Doug said at the same time with the same inflection. “Hey, congrats.” April added to Jason. “Glad they went local and didn’t bring in yet another jacktard from the other coast.”

  Jason eyed her mildly. “I’m a Rainier Islander,” he said.

  “Not recently,” she responded.

  “True,” he acknowledged. “They couldn’t get Jessie to take it, so I did.” He drained his glass and stood up. “So I guess I should go start doing something useful.” He glanced at the outer door. “Fix Brent up.” He carried his tray up to the line and deposited it then headed out.

  “That true, you turned ’em down?” April asked Jess in a straightforward kind of way.

  “Uh huh. Had no desire to sit in a chair dealing with all this political bullshit.” Jess glanced over at the attentively listening Dev. “Plus I’m not an idiot. Only place I’m going to add unlimited glory to my blood spattered name is with Dev.” She smiled at the hiked eyebrows. “Why would I stay here in the Citadel when I can terrorize the entire other half of the planet just with her carrier call sign?”

  Dev’s eyes widened perceptibly.

  “Nice.” April nodded approvingly. “Also, truth.”

  “Truth.” Doug agreed.

  “Yeah. Now I just have to tell the Bay and not have them shoot me,” Jess said. “Or maybe they’ll be relieved if I put someone else in charge there. Deals won’t get busted by me randomly gutting people.”

  Doug and April regarded her. “Truth,” Doug said again. “But I think they kinda like you like that. It’s that whole bloodthirsty vibe there.” He picked up his tray. “See you back in the mod trench, Rocket?”

  “Yes.” Dev watched the two leave then she rested her elbows on the table and regarded Jess. “So everything is correct here?” She selected her words carefully. “We are going to stay at this facility?”

  Jess sat back in her chair. “That okay with you?”

  “Of course. As long as I am with you, it doesn’t really matter to me what we are doing. But I am glad I will get a chance to use my programming and also that you think my results were excellent.”

  Jess bumped her shoulder again. “You don’t mind me being a limpet on your fame?”

  “I don’t really think that is accurate.”

  “Hah.”

  JESS WALKED THROUGH the night darkened halls on her way through ops to Med. She felt rested, finally, and healed. All the bruises faded to normal skin tone and a regular Citadel schedule giving her a chance to re-sort out her plans for the future.

  She glanced at the bio alt minder at the Med central desk and waved.

  “Hello, Agent Drake,” the bio greeted her. “Are you going to visit Doctor Dan?”

  Jess grinned. “How’d you guess?”

  The bio alt just grinned back.

  Jess went past the desk and back into the convalescent area, bypassing the tank room that was now, thankfully, empty. She paused at the door to one of the doors, pushed it open, and poked her head inside.

  The med tech on duty spotted her. “Hello, Drake.”

  Jess entered. “How’s he doing?”

  The tech nodded. “He’s close to coming out of it. He’s responding to physical touch, and his latest scan shows a lot of activity.” He leaned on the console. “How about you sing to him again and maybe he can just get up and leave.”

  Jess rolled her eyes and walked past three or four half shielded areas with other recovering figures in them. Kurok was in the one at the rear. The largest one with the most equipment, with a big screen on the wall showing a view of the sea.

  He was lying on his back, on the body cradling couch that periodically shifted position. His eyes were closed, and he had a light cover over him, his chest moving steadily under it.

  Jess approached the mechanism, eyeing it warily as she edged closer. It blooped and pinged at her, and she paused to regard it, having no real understanding of what it meant.

  But after a moment, she turned her attention to the figure on the couch. After a moment, as if knowing and understanding that, he opened his eyes and looked back at her.

  IT WAS LIKE waking up completely covered in glue. A singularly unpleasant sensation. But he recognized it. Had known the tank enough times to know what that grudging release into consciousness felt like.

  Consider the alternative, Justin had always advised him.

  So there was that. He could faintly hear the sounds of the room around him, the monitors and thumping of the pumps, and far off, the rumble of the tunnels and their power generation. It fit an old pattern he knew, and so he knew where he was, though not how he’d gotten there.

  Last memory? A fuzzy blare of yelling and the afterimage of a blaster in his eyes. Sets around him. And ah. The booming roar of the Bay battle yell.

  Bay ops. Leaping over the console like an idiot and...

  Protecting the innocent bystanders, who were also sets, and his...

  His children.

  Chaos. Seeing a BeeAye fearlessly step in front of a shot meant for one of the Bay kids, taking a stand with equal fearlessness and seeing that shot returned by an Interforce long rifle.

  Then pain.

  Then nothing.

  Then this.

  He heard his own breathing and felt the just perceptible movement of blood inside his body, that concussive double thump against his inner ear drum.

  Far off, he thought he heard the door open, and then the sound of someone approaching. There was no rustle of a med smock, or the mechanical clank of equipment, just a presence coming near, and then the faintest motion as hands were put on the edge of his med couch, a kinetic vibration transferring residual energy.

  He felt no threat. But he wanted to know more. Find out what happened. So he opened his eyes and found steadfast blue ones looking back at him with extraordinary clarity.

  With that Drake understanding that went past knowledge. That difference he’d seen and codified in Justin as a counterpoint to what he’d always described as his little family insanity problem.

  Except it wasn’t. Not really. He blinked a few times and tried to clear his throat.

  “Hey,” Jess said. “Glad you’re back. I got an idea I want to run by ya.”

  “Uh oh.” He managed a croaking whisper.

  DEV SHOULDERED HER carry bag and left the gym. She felt pleasantly tired from her recently completed exercise. The halls of the Citadel were quiet, and along one wall, a bio alt was polishing the newly finished sections from the last construction.

  Things had settled. Sort of. Everyone still seemed a bit wary, but daily operations h
ad moved back into a more normal schedule and there was a general sense of relief in evidence. Dev was glad.

  She detoured to the engineering lab and ducked into one of the mod pods. She settled behind the console with a grunt of satisfaction.

  “That you, Rocket?”

  She looked up from the pad. “Yes, it’s me,” she responded. “I wanted to see if comp had finished some metrics I asked for.”

  Cliff came around the pod partition and sat down on the second stool inside. “Whatcha making now?”

  Dev cleared her throat a little diffidently. “I was thinking about how to refine the altitude and attitude jets. To increase the precision. When I had to remove my vehicle from Drake’s Bay cavern, it was difficult.”

  Cliff folded his arms over his chest. “What was the clearance?”

  “There wasn’t any. That’s why it was so difficult.”

  The tech chief started laughing.

  Dev smiled sheepishly. “I did not really have time to evaluate the ingress. And I had to park in a very narrow space.” She indicated the panel. “So I submitted a mod request for the control surface.”

  Cliff tilted his head a little. “Under your own name this time?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said after a pause. “I think it will be all right.”

  The door opened again, and they looked up as Brent appeared. “Hey, Brent.” Cliff waved, casually. “Got your console set up there, row B.”

  “Thanks.” Brent hesitated, then waved at Dev. “Hey.”

  Dev waved back. “Hello.”

  Brent went into the second row of the pods and disappeared from sight, though they could hear him rummaging around.

  “Did you hear all the craziness, Dev?” Cliff said. “They lost so many people they raised up the senior ranking to three.” He eyed her meaningfully. “That’s a lot of positions for the taking.”

  Dev had heard. It seemed sad that this opportunity was extended to compensate for the violence they’d all been through. “Jess told me,” she answered simply. “She thinks I should do the test for it.”

  Brent came back around the partition. “Why the hell they have to test you for it?” he asked. “You write the damn nav programming. They got mech sups can’t do that.”

  “You can’t do it,” Cliff said, stiffening a little.

  “No I can’t, but I ain’t no mech sup,” Brent said. “I aint never going to be senior either.” He glowered at them. “Don’t even know if they’ll pair me up with anyone.” He turned and went back to the other pod, slamming down in his chair.

  Dev and Cliff exchanged looks.

  “He has a point,” Cliff said softly. “We lost a lot more agents than techs.”

  Dev considered that in silence. Jess had once told her that was the way of it because the agents did the fighting and stepped into the line of fire. She remembered all those black clad bodies in the Bay, being dragged out to the processor station, like so many sacks of rocks. “Yes.”

  “Takes a long while to restock,” Cliff said. “And the newbies come in pairs, you know?”

  Like April and Doug had. “Maybe they could get some new agents right from Drake’s Bay,” she suggested. “I think they like fighting.”

  Cliff looked around somewhat wildly then put his finger to his lips. “Don’t even suggest that!”

  “Why not?” Dev cocked her head in question. “I saw them on station. They are really ferocious.”

  Her comms chirped, and she touched it. “Dev.”

  “Hey.” Jess’s voice had that faint tone that indicated something pleasant was in store. “C’mon to med and say hi to the doc. He’s tired of my jokes.”

  “Excellent.” Dev stood up and palmed the console, sending the output to her quarters for later review. “I have to go, Cliff. Maybe we can talk about this later?”

  Cliff looked wryly at her. “Let’s not talk about this later. One Drake around is enough, you know what I mean?”

  Dev considered that. “No, actually, I don’t.” She smiled and moved past him, heading for the door.

  DEV SAT CROSS-LEGGED in front of her workstation, tapping on the input pad. She was in her sleep clothes, an expression of contented happiness on her face.

  Her screen was full of messages, and she was busy returning them. Some were from other techs, responding to the new mod she’d proposed. Some were from the dorms below, the relatively newly created message accounts for her fellow bio alts.

  So excellent to have gotten to talk to Doctor Dan. He was still mostly down, but he’d smiled at her and said he was glad to see her and that things would end up all right.

  So excellent. She typed in the message and sent it. She was so relieved. She would be able to tell all the sets at Drake’s Bay as well since Jess told her they would visit there tomorrow to finish up some things.

  She heard Jess enter her quarters and felt a brief buzz of anticipation as she detected the sound of footsteps, and then the door between them opened to admit Jess’s tall form. “Hello.”

  “Hey.” Jess came over and dropped into the chair next to her workstation. “Know what I heard in the mess?”

  Dev focused her attention on Jess. “You were in the mess?”

  “I was.” Jess removed a packet from her thigh pocket and put it on the table. “They had these. New ration bars.”

  Dev picked it up and sniffed it. “That smells excellent.” She unwrapped it. “Would you like a portion?”

  Jess chuckled. “Had two. You want to hear what I heard?” She looked pointedly at Dev, who was now munching on the bar. Dev watched her with that noncommittal look that meant she probably already knew. “Wrencher queen?”

  Dev swallowed then washed her mouthful down with a sip of tea. “Was it about the class?” Dev asked. “I just got confirmation a moment ago. So many of the instructors were damaged I guess.”

  “So many instructors can’t tell their asses from a sea turtle, I guess,” Jess said. “They’d rather get taught by Rocket Racoon.”

  “I am sure it’s only for the moment.”

  Jess reached over and ran her fingers through Dev’s hair. “Don’t be so modest, my friend. Don’t diss yourself. Wasn’t easy for them to ask you.”

  Dev put her cheek down on Jess’s leg. “I know that. I just want to be...I just want to fit in.”

  “Aw.” Jess gave her neck a little scratch. “Yeah. But sometimes you can’t. Like I can’t, y’know? I figured that out.”

  Dev enjoyed the contact. She closed her eyes and listened to the words, understanding them at some deep, base level. “They know about my collar,” she said after a pause. “Med found out.”

  “And Med told everyone,” Jess said. “But if they hadn’t, the other techs would have. They know.” She leaned over and nibbled Dev’s ear. “They think that’s good. That they’ll be able to catch up to you now, but you know what? That’s not true.”

  Dev, at that moment, really didn’t care if it was true or not. Tingles were working their way down from the side of her head into her middle. It was so excellent to be able to relax and enjoy it. She gently stroked the inside of Jess’s thigh in response and heard a faint, low purring sound right in her ear.

  It was awesome. She felt that insistent burning in her guts increase, and she pressed closer, savoring the throaty chuckle Jess produced. “Can we discuss the class later?”

  “C’mon.” Jess got up and extended her hand out.

  “Let’s go scare the seals.”

  Dev’s eyes narrowed a little, and a furrow appeared between her brows.

  “Don’t think about it.”

  Dev took hold of her hand, and they walked across the floor to the big bed in her quarters and tumbled into it. She started to undo the catches on Jess’s duty suit.

  There were a lot of them. It was very difficult to work them out because Jess began to nibble her way down Dev’s neck, making her brain go somewhere else. It felt amazing, and they’d had so little opportunity to practice sex in a while.
/>
  It was in the carrier the last time, and though she really liked her vehicle, it was much more optimal to do this in bed.

  Jess softly moved her shoulders in a sinuous wave as Dev managed to get the suit’s fastenings undone. She slid Dev’s tank top off, and then their bodies brushed lightly against each other, skin to skin.

  A surge of blood and sensation rushed to her skin, negating the typical chill in her quarters. The heat felt wonderful. She put her practice to work. Her lips meeting Jess’s in a very optimal way.

  Jess’s hands slid down Dev’s body in a hesitant dance, removing her sleep shorts as she kicked off her own suit. She then settled on her side to continue her sensual exploration.

  Gentle yes, but experienced. She seemed to always know just where to kiss and touch and tease, and Dev felt that breathless tension start to grow inside her, a craving that always surprised her.

  They both smelled a bit like the sea foam soap from the shower and a bit from the stone dust of the Citadel. Dev inhaled deeply of it as she traced a line around Jess’s breast and felt the faint uneven line of a scar. Jess had so many of the marks. Dev never found them anything but interesting, and she’d learned to find her way along Jess’s very long body almost using them as a guide. She traded touch for kiss, for nip, for stroking while they curled around each other across the center of the bed.

  Jess moved upward and gently nibbled her pulse point, then slowly kissed her way around Dev’s neck, the sudden prickling of memory almost making her hiccup as she forgot, and then remembered why that touch was so sensual to her of all people.

  She took a deep breath and felt no constriction. And then Jess started working her way down her body and she lost the ability to think about anything at all, letting the craving take her over and make her breathe hard as Jess brought that desire to the breaking point and she started to convulse.

  It was wave after wave of pleasure and then a gentling of the touch and a soft stroking that continued the pleasure without overwhelming.

  It was the best feeling in the world, and Dev took a moment to savor it before she shook the sweat out of her eyes and went to return the favor.