Partners - Book 1

by Melissa Good

“Is there a place for the people down there to hide like what we found, when the storm comes?”

  Jess remained silent for a bit, only the sound of her touching keys and relays echoing softly. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “Maybe...if they have a sea level cliff, or a pocket in an iceberg or something. Why?”

  “I just wondered,” Dev said. “I wonder what the bears do.”

  The clicking stopped, and she looked up in the mirror to see Jess looking back at her, with a puzzled expression. “They’re alive too, so I just wondered.”

  Jess shook her head and went back to her console.

  Dev figured bears probably didn’t mean much to Jess, even if they were cool to see. Then she remembered that Jess hadn’t really much cared about the boat people either, and it reminded her of what Jess had said, that she had—what was it? No moral sense? Did that mean she just really didn’t care about anything?

  Hm.

  She slowed the carrier further, and dipped lower toward the ice, scanning its surface to see if maybe she could see another bear. The ice seemed very disrupted though, there were big chunks scattered everywhere, and as she ran along the storm’s edge she started spotting dark lines in it.

  The ice seemed to be moving. As she slowed down, she could see it shifting, and then she realized that the dark lines were open water between huge chunks of the ice showing through. As she observed, the chunks moved, and the water splashed up between them, sending a spray high in the air.

  “Stay clear of that,” Jess said. “The water coming up. It’ll coat the outside of the bus.”

  “Yes, I see.” Dev checked the skin temperature of the carrier, which seemed all right for the moment. “How far should I go?”

  Jess glanced up. “Go to open ocean. Let’s see if we see any debris if those ships got caught.”

  Dev increased her speed, keying the scan up and checking to see if any other squirts were pending. Comms had been completely silent since the last one though. She tipped the carrier into a little bit of a down nose attitude and waited, as she saw a much darker line coming up on the horizon.

  That was open sea, according to scan. She nudged the craft into a bit of an arc, coming up over the line between ice and water and heading out in a shallow circle. The buffeting from the storm was lessening as it moved on ahead of them, and she felt the carrier level and the pressure gradients ease.

  Jess came up behind her again, leaning on the back of her seat as she looked out the window. Dev thought that was a just a bit odd, since she got a perfect view from the console display, and in fact, since that was augmented by the forward scan she could see more than just by looking.

  Yet, here she was.

  Dev concentrated on flying. She watched the scan return, seeing nothing at the moment but ice and water, and the rough and scalloped edge of the storm itself. The sea surface was wild and surging, white waves crashing over the ice and sending up spray almost to where they were.

  She turned up the outside sensors, and the carrier was filled with the noise of it, the roar and thunder of the waves, and the snapping and crack of the ice being battered along with the wind’s howling. It was very wild and a little bit exciting, but Dev was glad she didn’t see anything that might have been the boats in trouble floating around.

  “Hey. There,” Jess said suddenly, pointing over Dev’s shoulder at the edge of a tall iceberg. “Look. See the opening?”

  Dev certainly hadn’t, and even if she had she suspected she wouldn’t have known what she was looking at. “I see it.”

  “See if you can get down in there. I want to see what’s in that crack.”

  Dev studied the space, then glanced at Jess. Then she shook her head a little and complied, dipping the carrier down and heading for the sea’s rough surface. She kicked the engines on and skimmed over the water, weaving in and out of the waves as they exploded up on either side of her.

  “Guess we get to see if those heaters work after all.” Jess let her elbow rest casually on Dev’s shoulder.

  “I think we will.” Dev felt the spray hit them, and in an instant, the window was covered in ice. She pumped energy to the skin of the carrier and it cleared, only to be washed over again as another wave came from a different angle. “I’m glad comps up.” She studied the readout, piloting by it’s return and ignoring the visual distraction.

  “I’m glad you’re driving,” Jess said as they skimmed between the ice and the sea and dropped into the crack she’d seen from the outside. The front window cleared again and now that they were in a somewhat protected space, it stayed clear as Dev dropped the craft down toward the opening. “You might want to hold on,” she warned. “I think I will need to go sideways.”

  Jess pulled a standing restraint from its wall pocket and snapped into one of the weapons hard points on her suit. “Go baby go. Let’s see what this hunt gets us. “

  Dev tilted the carrier nose down and put it on its side, skimming between the two ice walls as she narrowed in on the opening Jess had spotted. She directed the outside lights into the crack, and in a moment they both had a brief sight of a craft, stubby figures, and the glare of a plasma blaster as it opened fire on them. “Oh!”

  Dev swiveled the craft on its axis and took the hit on the bottom of the carrier, then she kicked the engines to full power and pointed them back toward the sky, the gravity pressure slamming her hard in her chair and throwing Jess against the bulkhead. “I don’t think they wanted us to see them.”

  “Ya think?” Jess grimaced, as she pulled her head away from a door handle. “Remind me to rig up a rubber padded suit for flying with you.”

  “Sorry.” Dev pulled them out of their steep climb and arced over, going from two gravs to near null and sending Jess floating away from the wall. “Hold on.”

  “Need a damn bungy suit. Can I hold on to you?”

  Dev felt her face heat up, but she got the carrier level without sending Jess flying again. As a reward, Jess leaned over and kissed her, then unclipped from the wall and bounded back to her seat, dropping into it and pulling her full set of restraints around her.

  “Now.” Jess licked her lips. “Let’s try that again, only this time, with me on the forward guns.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” Dev asked.

  “Oh, yeah. No one shoots at me and gets away with it. Go baby go.”

  Dev suspected this might possibly end up to be a very long day.

  THEY WERE AT sea level again, coming in hard toward the ice cliff. Dev felt the weapons systems humming around her, and she could see on one of her aux screens that Jess was running targeting projections.

  She saw that the crack they’d gone down before had widened a trifle, and she ran a very quick calculation, bouncing a probe off the opening and decided they could go in right way up this time. The hit on the bottom shields had done no damage, and comp was telling her the blaster that they’d hit them with wasn’t that powerful.

  She wondered what Jess was going to do to them. “Stand by for entry.”

  Jess was whistling happily under her breath. “All right you piece of shit bastards, let’s see how you like these apples.” She got her hands on the targeting controllers and slipped her heads up view in place, the glare of the ice replaced with wire line grids showing her the planes and angles instead.

  She let off a tiny burst to test the guns, pleased at the response. She unlocked the gimbals on her seat and concentrated, her eyes looking past the crevice Dev was rapidly heading toward, to the potential targets beyond.

  A moment later, they were in the fold and coming through a burst of spray that thundered up from below them. The cavern came up quickly on the right hand side and she put her fingertips on the triggers, feeling her breathing slow and her body relax as she waited.

  Then they were down and at the opening and she spotted the gun swinging at them and she let off a full power blast, seeing the energy bolts hit the plasma platform inside and blow it up in a whirl of flinging metal.
>
  She could see figures running, and the cavern dock beyond where two big ships were docked. “Slow down.”

  Dev did.

  “Take us in.”

  Dev looped them in a circle and came back square on to the cavern, slowing as she eased the carrier inside the space. She could see bodies lying on the ice below, and a spatter of red, and figures diving behind ice ledges and away from the big things floating in the water.

  Boats? They must be.

  “Well.” Jess sighed. “This is going to be awkward.”

  “Excuse me?” Dev didn’t want to tear her attention away from the flight controls. There wasn’t much space inside the cave and she wasn’t sure if there were more guns around.

  “I think I just blew up some cousins,” Jess said. “But on the other hand, at least they didn’t croak in the storm.”

  “Oh.” Dev studied the view. “These are the people we’re here to see?”

  “Uh huh.”

  She could see figures now lined up behind the ice ledges, with weapons pointed their way. Dev risked a glance in the mirror and saw a bemused expression on Jess's face. “The ones you wanted to help us?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I see.” Dev held the carrier steady. “Interesting,” she said. “What would you like me to do?”

  “Take your clothes off.”

  Dev turned her head and looked at Jess, both her eyebrows hiking up almost to her hairline.

  Jess smiled. “Just kidding. Use the shortwave sideband. Scan the channels. See if they’re interested in talking to us now that they know who we are.”

  “They do?”

  “They know we’re Interforce,” Jess said. “These buses are pretty distinctive.”

  Dev kept one hand on the throttles and keyed comms with the other, switching from the long range system they used to receive messages from base to one that would only be useful at close range. She started a scan, sending out a blip with their generic ident on it to see what would happen.

  She jumped a little, as the guns on either side forward of the engines flared a little, and looked back at Jess in question.

  “Just want to make sure they know the lights are on,” Jess said. “So they don’t just start shooting at us with those hand blasters.” She exhaled. “Damn it, this’ll kill my cover too. Son of a bitch I hate when plans blow up in my face.”

  Dev concentrated on controlling the carrier, watching the figures facing them down on the ground. After a moment of silence the comms crackled. “Who are you?” A male, rough voice asked.

  Dev glanced in the mirror. “Should I answer?”

  Jess drummed the edges of her thumbs on her triggers. “Yeah. Give them our designation. Tell them we want to talk to them.”

  Obediently, Dev keyed the comm. “This is BR27006. Requesting open comms,” she said. “Standing by sideband twelve, endit.” She looked back, but Jess remained locked into her station, her eyes flicking over the screen with fierce intensity.

  It was confusing. She wasn’t really sure what Jess was going to do. Adjusting the throttles a little she eased the carrier slightly to one side, giving the forward scan a better look at the inside. It was a lopsided cavern, the water a deep and vibrant green blue and there was just enough water for the two boats to fit inside.

  Around where they were docked were narrow ledges of ice, and toward the back, where the ceiling was very low, were piled rocks and dark clothes, evidence of people living there.

  The comm crackled again, and a different voice came on. “What do y’want?” A low, male voice issued from the console. “We don’t want nothing to do with your lot. Take yourself off.”

  Dev turned in her seat and looked at Jess in question.

  “Gimme comm.” Jess waited for the lights to come on her console before she fitted her ear piece in and keyed it open. “Don’t be so hasty, Uncle Jacob. You fired on me first. You don’t want to end up on the blacklist do ya?” She clicked off, and waited .

  Could go either way. The fisher families were fiercely independent, and they didn’t generally take any crap from anyone. Not from Interforce, not from the other side, not from any of the regional leaders who cropped up from time to time. Jacob hadn’t seen or heard from her for years, might not even remember who she was.

  Or he might. Jess thought she’d impressed him, all those years back, with her work on the boat and her resistance to seasickness.

  “Jesslyn,” the voice returned. “This where you landed up?”

  “Yep. Just want to talk. That’s all.”

  The silence now went on for a protracted time. Jess kept her systems up, and kept scanning the area, despite having offered up her identity. You just never knew with people. She had no idea who she’d blasted down there, and the fishermen were known for taking revenge when they could against anyone that hurt them. Jess didn’t blame them for that. She respected them in fact.

  “All right,” the voice came back. “Drop. Quarter hour, that’s it. I have fish to catch.”

  Jess chuckled wryly under her breath. “Endit.” She put the comms down and released her harness. “Okay, Dev. I’m going down there.” She got up out of her seat and went to the locker. “Keep this thing hovering. I’ll signal you for a pickup and when I do just come down and open the hatch and I’ll jump in.”

  Jess could tell now from Dev’s careful lack of expression that she really didn’t like the plan. There was something a little charming about that. “No, huh?”

  “It sounds like it’s dangerous,” Dev said. “But I will do my best to keep you safe.” She adjusted the jets. “Where do you want me to let you off?”

  Jess snapped the catches on her suit and seated her guns in their holsters. “Right on that ledge down next to the ships. Turn us around so I can just step out of the hatch. Show off a little.”

  Show off a little. Dev flexed her hands and lowered the carrier until she heard the faint hiss as they impacted the water. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.” Jess stepped up to the hatch and waited, pulling her hood up and snugging the neck closure tight. She felt the carrier move and she opened the hatch, grabbing hold of the heavy bars on either side of the opening as the carrier turned on its axis, and at the same time, slid sideways to end up right next to the ledge she’d pointed out, the edge of the craft a bare foot from the ice. “Nice,” Jess said. “Be right back.”

  “Be careful, Jess,” Dev called out.

  With a smile, Jess stepped out of the hatch and onto the ice, feeling the tiny spikes on the bottom of her boots grab into the surface. She stepped away from the craft and it lifted clear, moving back out over the water and turning again so its nose was facing her.

  The forward windows were shielded and mirrored and she couldn’t see past them, but she knew Dev was there, watching her, with that adorably serious look on her face.

  With a smile, Jess turned and made her way up the icy slope, toward where a small group of people were waiting for her. They were all tall and spare, and though she hadn’t seen them for many a year, she recognized her far off kin easily. “Uncle.”

  Jacob was very tall, and had close cropped gray hair that outlined a square and grizzled skull. He was wearing a thick hide jacket and trousers and boots that came up to his knees. He was weathered and his face was scarred and he didn’t look at Jess with any real fondness. “Jesslyn.”

  He looked past her to the carrier, hovering patiently over the water. “How long you been out of school”

  “Ten years,” Jess said. “I posted to Base ten.”

  He nodded. “What do you want?” He glanced to his right and left, where several men were just waiting, hands on long knifes and the big hook poles they carried on the sips. “Only reason I’m talking to you is we did shoot first. Otherwise I’d gut you. No family here.”

  Jess merely nodded, unsurprised. “Never is, with us,” she said. “We got a squirt on a mayday from the fleet. We were in the area, so we thought we’d look for survivors.” S
he let her hand rest on the butt of her heavy blaster. “Didn’t expect to get fired on.”

  Jacob relaxed a little. The men around him also shifted, some glancing back toward the boats. “I heard it,” he said. “Figure two, maybe three of Jan Henry’s boats got caught in a crush.” He gestured to the men. “Go get the ships ready to ride out.”

  The men turned and left without any comment, heading down the ice slope toward the slips where the fishing boats were waiting. Jacob watched them for a moment, then he turned back to Jess. “Sit.” He pointed to an ice ledge covered in a thick fur.

  They walked over and sat down and Jess rested her elbows on her knees. “Glad the boats weren’t yours,” she said. “That was a hell of a storm. It caught us coming over the rim and we nearly ditched.”

  Jacob glanced at the carrier. “Hunting?”

  “Maybe. We saw a bear.” Jess grinned briefly.

  “Yeah?” Now her once removed Uncle looked interested.

  “Big one. On the way out here,” Jess said. “Thought we saw other things moving but the storm blocked scan.” She looked squarely at Jacob. “So what was that firing all about? You always shoot before you ask around these parts now?”

  Jacob studied her face for a long moment. “Been attacked twice,” he said finally. “Lost two boats in the last three months.”

  Jess straightened “What?”

  His eyes met hers. “You didn’t know,” he said. “Been raiding up here a lot. Looks like pirates.”

  “Pirates,” Jess said. “As in, ice pirates the phantom ghouls of the arctic?”

  “Lost thirty men to them ghouls,” Jacob said. “Don’t know if they’re the pirates of old, or just new raiders who took on that flag, but that’s the answer for the quick trigger. Weren’t sure what you were, weren’t taking chances.”

  Huh. Jess was internally startled to find a silly story she’d dredged out to taunt Sydney was now plonked live and real in front of her from the lips of her kin.

  Now Jess had to wonder, and maybe doubt a little where she’d gotten it from. Could it have been something in a report she’d read without thinking too much about it? “Haven’t been reported around here for a long time,” she said. “Same scheme?”