Partners - Book 1

by Melissa Good

  “I like that about you,” Jess said, noting the faint blush that was visible despite the low lights. “Do you like it?”

  Dev was silent for a while. “I think I’m getting to,” she finally said, with a faint grin.

  “There you are.” Jason appeared next to them, with Brent and Elaine in tow. “Nice speech.” He gave Dev a brief smile. “Short and sweet. Half the citadel wants to kill you the other half wants to kiss you.”

  “Which half are you?” Dev asked, unexpectedly.

  Jason paused in mid breath, and stared at her. “What?”

  Jess started chuckling. “Which half are you?” She asked Dev, then paused, looking embarrassed.

  “Well, I definitely don’t want to kill you,” Dev said, after just a little too long a pause, as their eyes met.

  Jason apparently caught his breath and plowed ahead. “Anyway. Bain’s happy. No one else matters.” He clapped Jess on the shoulder. “Sandy decided to take a bottle to her quarters and get drunk, so you don’t have to worry about her jackass tongue tonight. Ready to dance?”

  Jess was still looking at Dev’s face. “Sure,” she muttered. “I’m ready for anything.”

  “Great.” Jason turned and stood on his toes. “Hey, they finally got the grub out. I’ll grab some. Brent, stay here.”

  Brent took up a spot against the wall next to Dev, folding his muscular arms over his chest and watching the crowd with a skeptical frown.

  Dev leaned next to him, sipping her beer. After a minute she turned and looked at Jess, and smiled, getting a smile back as Jess lifted her mug and both eyebrows at her.

  “HERE YOU GO.” Jess took a seat on the ledge next to Dev, handing her a plate of assorted goodies and then setting her cup down.

  Jason and Elaine, and Brent and Tucker were ranged on either side of them, holding an informal court as a long parade of people came up to say hello.

  Dev was happy to sit quietly and watch, kept well supplied with treats from Jess’s frequent escapes through the crowd. They were on one end of the big room, in the curve, with the transparent panels providing a colorful backdrop as the storm continued to rage.

  She had her legs pulled up crossed under her, with a plate balanced on one knee, and was fully occupied in listening to Jess talk to the other agents as she kept an eye on people approaching from her peripheral vision.

  There was a lot of conflicting emotion going on. But Jess seemed to be in a pretty good mood, so she supposed the party was going well.

  The food was good, and she was enjoying it. She and Brent had traded fish rolls, since he preferred the ones with the crunchy seaweed in them and she liked the other kind, and she had spent some time talking to him about the work she was doing on the carrier.

  He liked that sort of thing too, so now he was explaining about how he tweaked the engine torque on his vehicle and she was wondering if she could try doing that on hers. On theirs, she mentally corrected herself, since the carrier really was assigned to Jess.

  Jess was sitting side by side with her, and their shoulders were pressed against each other. Since their shoulders were both bare, it was a warm and pleasant sensation she was very much enjoying, just as she had enjoyed their banter earlier.

  It made her feel good to think that Jess was beginning to trust her a little, enough to joke around. Dev knew that was rare, both between bio alts and definitely between bios and natural born, but she liked it. She thought about what she’d asked Jason, and then what Jess had asked her, and it made her smile.

  She definitely didn’t want to kill anyone, but especially not Jess. Bio alts didn’t do that. Of course, she really didn’t have any idea what kissing her would be like either but since she thought Jess was quite attractive, and she liked her, she supposed it would be an all right thing to do.

  “Ah, here they come.” Jason nudged Jess. “The kids finally scraped up the guts to come meet you.”

  “Would you stop it? I’ve got enough crap to deal with.”

  “C’mon Jess. Enjoy it for a change.” Jason waved the newcomers forward. “You earned the bump. No one gave it to you,” he said. “Screw that bitch Sandy and her buddies. They’re just farting jealousy in three colors.”

  Jess regarded the new agents and their partners dourly. They all seemed ridiculously young to her, all slim and leanly muscled, with short cropped hair and cleanshaven faces.

  Of the agents, four were men, and two were women. All of the techs were men, but that wasn’t unusual. Two of the male agents had dark hair, two had light, and both women had brown hair and looked like each other.

  Very average.

  The tallest of the men came forward. His name plate said Arias, M and he had a quiet self possession. “Agent Drake, I just wanted to compliment you on your speech.”

  Jess eyed him wryly. ”Yeah? If you blinked, you missed it,” she said. “Maybe I’ll get lucky and they won’t ask me again.”

  “Remember when Bricker did it last year?” Jason said. “Kept us standing there for an hour and a half. Bastard.”

  “Well, if that’s the case, I’m glad I inducted today.” Arias half turned. “This is my partner Chester.” He motioned forward a tech standing just behind him. “He’s a west coaster.”

  “Hey there, Chester.” Jason lifted his glass. “So am I. Rainer Islander.”

  Chester produced a grin. “My uncle lives there. He likes it.”

  “This is Elaine Cruz, and her partner Tucker.” Jason went on. “This is my partner, Brent.” He paused, then glanced at Jess, raising one eyebrow.

  For a moment, Jess stared back at him impassively, then she looked at the new agent. “I guess you already know who I am,” she said. “This is my partner, Dev.” She tilted her head in Dev’s direction. Then she went back to munching on a seaweed fish wrap.

  Jason chuckled. “That didn’t take long.”

  “Shut up.”

  Dev looked over at Jess with a startled expression. Then she recovered, and cleared her throat. “Hello.” She greeted the agent. “Nice to meet you. Welcome to the citadel.”

  “Mike.” The agent stuck a hand out and smiled when Dev shook it. Then he turned and motioned the other new agents forward.

  Dev took the opportunity of the distraction to look back over at Jess, who, after a moment, lifted her eyes to meet hers. After a brief moment, Jess shrugged a little. “Hell,” she said. “I can’t go on calling you my bus driver if you keep saying nice things about me, now can I?”

  Dev smiled happily as the other new agents came up in front of them. She turned to face them, finding herself looking at one of the new female agents. “Hello.”

  “You’re the bio alt?” The woman asked.

  “Yes,” Dev said cordially. “NM-Dev-1.” She took a quick sideways look as she felt Jess shift, and became aware that her attitude had shifted, from casual to alert, her pale blue eyes fixed on the newcomer. “Is that a good or bad thing for you?”

  The woman seemed caught offguard. “Um...” She lifted her hands a bit and let them drop. “I don’t know, really. We just heard about it when we were heading out here,” she said. “I’m April.” She extended her hand. “Did you say... Dev?”

  “Yes,” Dev said, shaking her hand. “Welcome.” She felt Jess relax and turn her attention back to her plate, which was nearly empty.

  “So is it true you got all your stuff in a week?” The brown haired man next to her asked. “I’m Doug,” he added. “April’s mule.”

  “Doug.” The woman gave him a look.

  Jess gave them both an approving look, but didn’t interrupt.

  “That’s not exactly true,” Dev said. “I had my basic instruction starting when I was five, and went to advanced school when I was twelve. So I’ve been learning a long time. I did get a big dose of programming before I came here, but that was mostly all the tech stuff I needed to do my job.”

  “Not so different from us,” April said.

  “No, not at all,” Jess said. “I didn’t
think a bio alt would work, but Dev proved me wrong,” she said, in a matter of fact tone. “Uncomfortable as that is for all of us. It is, what it is.”

  “I don’t think I’ve proved that yet,” Dev said. “I’ve only done one mission with you.”

  “Did you know they’ve been playing the recorder file of that one mission in the rec center for the last two days?” Jess asked, her brows lifting.

  Dev blinked. “No, I didn’t. Why would they do that?”

  “And she’s modest too,” Jess said to the assembled agents, who chuckled softly. “That’s what I meant about going with change. I thought this was going to be crap. I was wrong.” She regarded Dev. “Who knows? Maybe we won’t need a thirteenth generation of Drakes doing this.”

  “You really want that?” Mike asked. “It was my ticket to school. Rest of my family harvests grubs, and half of them can’t read.”

  “Mine too,” Jess said. “The ones who don’t get taken to Interforce, that is. I’ve got a brother raking weed, and another doing recap for the processing station downhill.” She extended her arms, and the light hit them, showing the burned in sigils. “But every dot’s a dead body on these.”

  A silence fell, and the new agents exchanged glances.

  Jess turned her arms over, since the sigils went around in a band. “Clear means stalemate. Green means we won. Red means they won.” She looked dispassionately at her skin. ”Yellow diamond means I ended up in med.”

  Dev examined her arms intently, since some of this code was new to her.

  “Maybe it would be better to have them do it,” Jess said, after she let the silence go on for a moment. “Most of us don’t survive to forty.”

  “Wow.” Mike finally said.

  “Don’t tell ya that stuff in field school, huh?” Jason smiled thinly “They didn’t when I went through.” He hopped off the ledge and stretched his arm out next to Jess’s. Despite his greater height, their fingertips matched, though the burned sigils only went halfway down his arms just past his elbows.

  Elaine circled to come up on his other side, showing her own. “People will talk crap here.” She said to the newcomers. “But this tells the real story.”

  Dev watched intently, seeing the young faces that surrounded them absorbing the information. She felt that they were a little ambivalent about her, but that was okay. She hadn’t gotten the outright antagonism she’d sensed from Sandy and her partner, or the two other older agents she hadn’t been introduced to.

  She reached over and touched Jess’s arm, running her fingers over one of the more intricate sigils, which also had a prominent yellow mark on it. To her surprise, she watched goosebumps rise beneath her fingers and she looked up to find Jess watching her. “Was that a bad trip to med?”

  “Broke my back,” Jess said. “So yeah.” She looked down at the mark, which bore six green roundels. “They kept me in a fuser for a week, and then in a pin rack for two more. I’d rather have died.”

  Dev grimaced. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t.”

  The sound of clapping drew all of their attention. “Enough war stories, people.” Bain was standing nearby. “Go dance and have fun for a change. Tomorrow’s soon enough to be serious.” He waved them all toward the open area, and as he did, music started playing.

  Jess made no move to stand. Jason and Elaine exchanged glances, and then Jason held his hand out. “Shall we? Show the kids how it’s done?”

  “You’re on,” Elaine said, and they walked through the crowd as others moved along as well, and the music picked up in both pace and loudness. “C’mon, kids.”

  The newcomers shuffled, and then trailed after them, as the lights went down to a lower dimness, and that only let the lightning overhead become more prominent.

  Jess and Dev were left at the ledge, everyone else obeying Bain’s orders.

  Jess turned her head and studied her companion. “Do you dance?”

  Dev tore her eyes from the dance floor and returned the regard. “I have absolutely no idea what that is,” she said. “It looks like they’re walking across a very hot floor with no shoes on.”

  Jess laughed. “Yeah, I’m not much for it either. I’m too self conscious, I think. I’m always aware of how stupid I look flopping around like a fish out of water there.”

  “Are you a fish out of water here?” Dev asked. “You seem different than the rest of them.”

  Jess looked up, with a startled expression. “I belong here,” she stated flatly. “Are you saying I don’t?”

  Oh no. Dev felt immediate distress. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be incorrect.” She slid off the ledge and faced Jess, her brow creased. “I’m very sorry.”

  Jess responded to the near panic in her voice, her anger dissolving as she put her hand on Dev’s shoulder. “Hey. Take it easy. It was just a weird question, that’s all.”

  Dev studied her with a worried expression. “It’s just that you’ve been so...” She paused, unsure of whether to continue. “I don’t want you to be angry. I meant that in a good way.”

  Jess leaned on her elbows, clasping her hands together. It was almost dark in the room, save the dance lights, and it gave her an illusion of privacy. “Maybe I’ve always been a little weird,” she admitted. “No matter how much history my family has of this.”

  “You’re not weird,” Dev said, automatically. “You just see so much more than they do. They’re so...um...” She paused again. “Not as deep as you are.”

  Oh. Jess sorted through that, detecting that it was, in fact, something positive. “Sorry I freaked you out.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Jess chuckled wryly. “You hit a sensitive spot of mine,” she said, in a low tone. “I’ve always been a rebel. They all know it. That’s why so many of them are pis...are mad that I got senior.”

  “Oh.” Dev slowly eased herself back up onto the ledge, her heartbeat starting to settle.

  “I’ve never done things the right way,” Jess said. “I always did what I thought was best, not what I was told. I’ve been in trouble more times than...” She sighed. “I embarrassed the hell out of my father. He was such a regulation stickler.” She paused. “I wondered if I should change my name so he didn’t have to hear it from everyone when I screwed up.”

  Dev put a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “I know.” Jess pulled one long leg up and wrapped her arms around it. “No way for you to know about all that stuff. We’ve only known each other for what—three days? Four?” She looked sideways at Dev. “It’s fine, Dev. It’s a good question, and I don’t mind talking to you about it.”

  Dev nodded, and kicked her heels against the ledge a couple times. “To tell the truth,” she said, after a long pause. “I think I know I’m different too. “Maybe it’s because I’m a dev model. But I was always really aware of being—I think you called it a one off.”

  “Good or bad?” Jess asked.

  Dev thought about that for a long time in silence. “When I became aware of it, I guess I was around ten or so, it was a really lonely thing to think about. None of us has any family. But at least everyone else had their set mates and I remember being at a celebration, sort of like this.” She indicated the room. “And I realized I was the only one of my kind there who was alone.”

  “Mm.” Jess grunted softly, deep in her throat.

  “It was uncomfortable.”

  “I bet.” Jess looked around the room, watching all the moving bodies and hearing the laughter and music. Then she turned her head back toward Dev. “Wanna go steal a tray of brownies and go for a swim?”

  Dev looked back at her and grinned. Then she indicated the room. “This is all a little much for me.” She admitted. “I’m not used to it.”

  “Don’t need to tell me twice.” Jess slid off the ledge and waited for Dev to join her. Then she put her hand on Dev’s back and guided her toward one of the walls. “I know a secret way,” she said. “And it pa
sses right by the prep area for the kitchen.”

  They left the noise and the celebration behind them, as Jess scanned open an unmarked black door and they passed through into a bare, utilitarian hallway. As the door closed, it cut off all the clamor like a knife.

  “Oh.” Dev looked behind them, as silence took the place of the chaos.

  “Soundproof door,” Jess said, leading the way to an equally unmarked lift door, which accepted her palm scan without complaint. “Not many people know about this back route.” She waited for the lift to open, then stepped inside. After Dev joined her, she keyed a command on the inside panel and the door slid shut.

  It opened again, at the lower level, but inside the medical area. Jess strolled through the pristine halls, keeping her eyes forward and not looking into the exam rooms on either side. She debated telling Dev why she knew the back way, then decided against it.

  Hopefully, she would never have to witness the situation that elevator was there for.

  Chapter Thirteen

  THE GYM WAS silent and half dark, and the water was again soothingly warm. Jess carefully spread her arms out along the wall, just relaxing in the liquid and glad of the relative quiet around her.

  Relative, because Dev was paddling around idly, practicing her swimming.

  Jess watched her unobtrusively. Despite her concentration, she could sense Dev was distracted, the expression on her face thoughtful and somewhat withdrawn. She wondered if Dev was still worried about upsetting her. “Hey.”

  Dev looked up. “Yes?”

  “C’mere.” Jess crooked a finger at her.

  Obediently, Dev swam in her direction, her body already moving with burgeoning assurance through the water. “Damn.” Jess sighed. “I sure wish I could learn that fast.”

  “What?” Dev reached her and grabbed the edge of the wall, since the bottom was below her reach.

  “You’re already picking up swimming,” Jess said. “I said I wish I could learn like that. And that wasn’t anything that was programmed, was it? That’s how you learn?”

  Dev paused in the water, her eyes going a little unfocused. “I never really thought about that,” she said. “But I guess it is. We’re conditioned to learn. It’s good when you have programming for something, but sometimes you don’t and you need to be able to do it anyway.”