Partners - Book 1

by Melissa Good

  Unlike the jumpsuit they all typically wore in the facility, this was different. It was far heavier and had lightweight body armor built into it, protecting her most vital areas. There were integrated comms and leads for the carrier systems and buckles and clips for her weapons.

  She picked up her boots and carried them to the workstation, leaning a finger on the comms. “Dev?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ready?” Jess asked.

  “Yes.”

  “C’mon in here.” Jess released the button and sat down to pull her boots on. A moment later the inner door opened and Dev entered. She briefly scanned her slight form, noting she had found and put on the carrier ops rig and was holding her own boots in her hand. “Sit.”

  Dev did, putting down one boot and putting on the other.

  “You sleep okay?” Jess asked. “I can imagine most of this is pretty strange.”

  Dev glanced up at her. “Really well, thank you,” she said. “It’s very comfortable.” She put on her other boot. “I really like the wet thing. It makes my skin feel good.”

  “The shower?” Jess smiled briefly. “Yeah, I like it too.” She stood up, and after Dev did also, she scrutinized Dev’s gear with a critical eye. “They give you programming for this?” She pointed at the suit.

  “Yes,” Dev said. “But also, there are some things that are left to natural sense. Like putting underwear on and that sort of thing. We don’t need programming for that.” She paused. “Or sneezing, or using the lavatory.”

  Jess started chuckling. “You’re really different from the rest of the bios we have here,” she said. “Are there many like you topside?”

  Dev straightened her cuff a little. “I’m the only one they’ve produced in my set so far, so I guess no.”

  “Ah.” Jess pulled her hair back in a tail and quickly braided it, then tucked it into her collar. “So you’re one of a kind, eh?”

  “Yes.”

  Well, that was interesting. Jess climbed the steps up to her weapons locker. “Let me get rigged, and we’ll grab some chow.” She opened up the case and took out the stun knives, sliding them into their sheaths and added her sidearm into it’s holster.

  Her heavy weapons were in the carrier, but she took the time to clip on a utility flash and a multi-tool, then trotted down the steps and waved Dev toward the door. “Let’s go, kid. Time to make the doughnuts.”

  Dev followed her willingly, but had a slightly perplexed expression on her face. “What’s a doughnut?” She asked. “And how do you make them?”

  “They’re mythological,” Jess said.

  “Oh.”

  “I hear they tasted good though.”

  DEV HAD TO stop a moment just to stare when they entered the carrier hanger. It was a huge cavern, larger than any space she’d ever seen inside before, and it was full of parked vehicles, most huddling in the dark.

  Three were lit, however, and several bio alt mechanics were moving around them with pads and tools. Jess headed toward the one furthest on the left and Dev quickly trotted to catch up with her as Elaine and Jason split off and went to their own crafts.

  Overhead were giant panels in the roof that apparently opened to let the carriers out. The whole place smelled of organics and synth oil, and echoed with the sounds of latches engaging and bangs of tools.

  Dev’s eyes took in the carrier Jess was nearing. Her programming kicked in, and the outline of the squat, powerful vehicle hit familiar chords as information about it poured in. The outside color was mottled gray, except for the identification code stenciled outside the hatch, and Jess’s last name printed underneath it.

  Jess palmed the hatch lock and ducked inside as it opened. Dev followed her, trying to take everything in as quickly as she could.

  Programming gave her the inside before she saw it, and she nodded as she moved past the strapped down bucket seat Jess would ride in and went up into the nose of the carrier, where a second station was waiting for her.

  The inside of the carrier was packed with gear. Mostly electronic, monitoring and scanning systems, gyros, and positioning rigs. To one side a rack was lashed that held long muzzled laser rifles and one heavy projectile cannon, and the drop pack with its jet systems.

  Dev went to the pilot’s seat and settled into it, feeling the gimbals shift as it took her weight. She took a breath and looked around at the console, comforted when a mental image of the sim settled over the reality of the controls and they started making sense to her.

  “Run the checklist.” Jess’s voice was cool and a little distracted. “I assume you know how?”

  “Yes.” Dev flexed her hands and settled back into the seat, waiting a moment until the programming kicked in and her fingers reached out to start the sequence. “Systems coming live,” she said, as the console came to life and in rapid succession, the equipment packs to her right and left followed.

  Jess sat down and watched in bemusement as the carrier came alive around her, the slim hand of Dev going through touches and settings as though she’d done it many times before.

  Dev activated the leads and hooked them into her suit, sliding the comm rig over her head and tucking the ear cups into place. She flicked her eyes to the registration number and then keyed in a command. “Carrier BR27006 systems check.”

  “Stand by,” a mechanical voice answered. “Stand by BR27006.”

  “Standing by,” Dev said. She looked at the console readouts and pulled a pad over, keying in the various settings and supplies they reported. She saw an incoming request, and reviewed it. “They’re asking to setup an intercom.”

  “Go ahead,” Jess said. “That’s Jason. It’s so we can talk to each other.”

  “Intercom set to channel 4500, sideband 2.” Dev spoke into the comms. “Read back?”

  “Confirmed,” a male voice answered. “Channel 4500, sideband 2. Brent out.”

  Jess quickly checked the heavy arms, then reached over and punched the door seal, closing out the sounds of the carrier bay. At once, the internal sounds of the vehicle, the click and whir of the life support, and the low hum of the pre start engines became obvious.

  She saw Dev making adjustments, and pulled her own pad over and scanned the system readouts. After a moment, she looked at the back of the pilot’s chair and let out a small, surprised breath. “Damn.”

  “BR27006, systems check complete,” a voice called quietly in Dev’s ear. “Stand by for switch to internal systems.”

  “Standing by.” Dev watched the readouts as the umbilicals were removed and they were on internal power. She could see the spool ups for the two big engines and the launch jets and she triggered the restraint system that closed around her holding her snugly to her seat.

  Her feet in the boots found the side jet controls, the chair gimbals moving to adjust for her height. Now that the internal systems were online, whispered voices started in her ear as systems came up to flight ready and reported to her. “I think we’re set,” she said. “Everything’s online and green.”

  Jess was seated in her chair, with her arms folded. “You actually know how to do this.” Her voice was tinged with disbelief.

  Dev turned in her seat and looked back at Jess. “Apparently so.”

  “Unreal.” Jess settled a comm set over her own head and triggered it. “Blue group one, Blue group controller.”

  “One, Tac one.”

  “One, Tac two.”

  The answers came back in clipped tones. “Report ready,” Jess said. “We’re ready and standing by to launch.”

  Bare hesitation. “Tac one ready,” Jason answered. “Standing by.”

  “Tac two ready” Elaine said a beat later. “Standing by.”

  “Ask control to open the gates,” Jess told Dev. “We’ll launch first, you all follow. When we get to the first set of coordinates, I’ll split right you split left. Copy?”

  “Understood,” Jason reported.

  “Gotcha.” Elaine said.

  Dev spoke int
o the comms. “Control, this is BR27006. Requesting access for flight please.”

  Even through the hull of the carrier, they could hear the roof opening, the huge metal panels grinding apart and allowing a thunder of water into the bay, drops falling and slamming into the carrier roof with a muted roar.

  Dev settled herself and put her hands on the engine throttle controls, her mind going over her next few steps. She was glad she had the programming so solid for this. Everything seemed familiar to her and the readouts all clicked in her mind.

  “BR27006 this is control,” the voice said. “Access is granted. Launch when ready.”

  “Go,” Jess said. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Dev took a deep breath and let it out, then she thumbed the launch jet controls and felt the carrier shift under her. In the next moment, they were rising past the carriers on either side, and she gently puffed the side jets to position them under the wide opening.

  It was like the sim, and not. The rumbling and the sensation was the same, but there was a spatial difference she realized immediately and she gave the launch jets a little more power to get them up and out of the cavern.

  Below her she spotted the two other carriers lifting to follow, and then she was above the hatches and into the steady rain still falling around them. She shifted sideways again, and rotated the carrier 360 degrees on the horizon, looking at the endless expanse of craggy lifeless land and then the equally endless expanse of ocean.

  The two other carriers emerged from the cavern and hovered, as the big panels slid shut. Dev programmed the coordinates Jess had given her, and then turned. “Ready to fly.”

  Jess was still watching her with her arms crossed, a bemused smile on her face. “Let’s go, then,” she said. “So far, you’re doing fine.”

  Dev smiled back, then she turned and settled herself again. She opened the controls for the propulsion engines and triggered them, waiting for them to engage forward motion before she shut down the launch jets and they started forward.

  The rumble of the carrier grew and the engines spooled up, increasing their speed as they left the cliffs behind and headed out over open water. It was very dark, but the multi band sensors in her forward display let Dev see in front of her as though it were daylight.

  She increased the speed, and then settled down to watch the readouts, tweaking the trim on the carrier until the outer rumble slowed, then faded, as they went through the speed of sound.

  “Jess,” the intercom crackled.

  “Yes, Jason?” Jess leaned back in her chair.

  “You driving that thing?”

  Jess chuckled. “Nope. I’m sitting in the back, about to start checking my guns.”

  “Shit.”

  Dev glanced behind her. “I’m sorry if I’m causing him disturbance.” She returned her attention to the readouts, making a slight adjustment to their trim.

  “That was a compliment. Don’t worry about it,” Jess said. “Okay, I’m going to check out the weapons systems. Don’t make any loud noise. I’ve got a jumpy trigger finger and I don’t want to shoot Jason’s butt from under him.”

  Dev’s eyes widened a little, and she turned around again to look at Jess.

  Jess grinned and winked. “Keep your eyes on the road, kid. We’re going to have us some fun.”

  THE LONG TRIP gave Dev ample opportunity to explore all the controls on the carrier and she was now reasonably comfortable with them. She settled back in her chair as the water skimmed under them for mile after mile of ruffled white gray surface.

  Jess had tuned the weapons systems that were rooted in her console, laser cannons mounted on all sides of the carrier along with two racks of flash bombs in eject tubes. Now she was working with the pad at her station, keying in trims on the cannons and keeping an eye on their progress.

  She hadn’t spoken much. Dev occasionally glanced back at her, noting the absorbed expression as she went about her tasks. “Sixty minutes to edge of the storm,” she said. Jess looked up and met her eyes.

  “Good.” Jess said. “Okay, here’s the plan.” She got up and came over to where Dev was sitting, kneeling at her side with her pad in her hand. “This is the layout of the base.” She leaned her forearm on the arm of Dev’s chair and indicated a wiremap diagram.

  Dev looked at it attentively. There was a triangular block in the center, with a tracing over it outlining entrances and a landing field. “Okay.”

  “We go past the Gibraltar outpost.” Jess pointed at the wedge. “That’s where they should pick us up and start chasing us from.” She moved the pad image along and pointed at a set of scattered islands. “That’s the Spanish Archipelago where most of the experimentation happens, and this is the control center at Andorra.” She indicated another large wedge. “That’s our target.”

  Dev nodded.

  “The service port those other teams were going for is here.” Jess swiped at the pad, enlarging the wedge and pointing out a ruggedly cut square depression just below the summit, obviously a landing pad. “They’re pinned down here.” She swiveled the diagram and pointed to an uneven overhang in a narrow part of a V shaped crack in the rock.

  “Okay,” Dev said.

  “So the tricky part is, we need to keep this thing in one piece while they chase us,” Jess said. “It’s got halfway decent shielding but it won’t take more than a couple direct hits, and being blown to molecules would ruin my day.”

  Dev nodded. “Mine too.”

  “So you need to let them get close enough to think they’re going to catch us, but not close enough for them to nail us,” Jess said. “You can use these ridges here, and the edge of the cliffs. They have to think we’re going for the service port.”

  “Okay.”

  “So then we are,” Jess said. “You’re going to put me down in that entrance and I’m going to leave them a calling card just for what they did to me the last time.”

  Dev looked at her. “I don’t remember you going over that in the plan.”

  Jess smiled. “What I didn’t tell everyone they can’t tell anyone else. If Bain’s right, and there’s another leak inside Interforce, then they’ll expect me to just try and draw them off from the others, which means, they won’t really chase me. “

  Dev nodded slowly. “Okay.”

  “So then I can get into the service port and give them something to really worry about. That will draw them off.”

  “But they’ll come after you.”

  “You’ll have to draw them off, then come back and pick me up,” Jess said. “It’ll be tight.”

  “I’m sorry, you did realize I’ve never actually done this before,” Dev said. “That wasn’t anything I ever even sim’d.”

  Jess studied her face. “So we’ll find out for sure if you’ve got the chops for it. Otherwise, chances are we’ll both croak.”

  Dev frowned. “That seems like a non optimal plan,” she said. “Are you sure you want to do it?”

  Jess felt a prickle of surprise. One thing Joshua had never done was question her. Techs didn’t. They weren’t the strategic part of the deal. What did this bio alt know about risk anyway? She looked back at Dev, taking a breath to tell her off when she was caught by the expression on her face.

  Serious. Intent. Concerned.

  She re-sounded the question in her head. “Why wouldn’t I want to do it?” She countered.

  “Well.” Dev glanced at her consoles, then back at Jess. “If something happens and it doesn’t work, then both the other teams, and the two with us, and you and I might not return. Does this achieve your goals?”

  Jess revised her anger. “I’m gambling on the fact that they’re more interested in me than the others. If I focus them on me, the rest of the teams have a much better chance of getting out of here in one piece.”

  Dev considered that, and they sat in silence studying each other. “I will do the best I can to do what you ask then,” she finally said. “It would be a good thing if we all got out in o
ne piece.” She swiveled around and put a hand to one ear. “BR27006.”

  “Long range scan, one inbound,” the soft voice sounded in her ear.

  “What is it?” Jess asked, since she’d left her comm set back on her station.

  “They’re picking up a single signal inbound to us,” Dev said. “Directly ahead.”

  “Interesting.” Jess scuttled back to her station and slid into her chair, swinging the comm set up and onto her head. She pulled the pad around and started tapping on it, her eyes flicking to the various screens and readouts on her own console.

  Dev focused on the air ahead of them, still full of rain, and wisps of cloud they were traveling through. She adjusted her scans and after a minute, they picked up the inbound signal also, a quick pan showing no identifying squirts that would mark them friend or otherwise.

  It was coming fast, though. The comp quickly tabulated a vector and she heard Jess behind her starting to activate the weapons systems.

  Her harness snugged down and the inside lights, already fairly dim, went to ice blue. She saw two panels come active and she adjusted the power leads from the engines as they shunted energy to the weapons systems Jess was now spooling up.

  Dev took hold of the throttles and keyed off auto gen, holding the course by hand as she adjusted the side jets. The incoming object was heading right for them, and now the scan was warning distance. “Five minutes out.”

  “Do you have an ident?”

  “No.” Dev flexed her hands on the throttles. “Do you want me to evade it?”

  “Hang on.” Jess got her hands into the triggering gloves and activated the targeting system. At once, she had a heads up display of what Dev was seeing through the front windows, and side panels that showed her the sensors on the outside of the carrier.” Let it come close enough for visual, then turn to port and come up over it.”

  “Okay.” Dev reviewed what she’d have to do, and nodded to herself. She put the scan up on one monitor and watched it, seeing the blip getting larger and larger on the display.