by Melissa Good
“I’m not,” Dev replied in a straightforward way. “You can do that at any time.” She had moved her cup away and her skin was still tingling with the sudden connection. “It feels excellent.”
Jess eyed her, and a rakish smile appeared on her face.
The women finished their work across the room, and they rang a small, yellow metal bell that immediately made everyone else shut up and move toward them.
“We’ll wait until they get theirs,” Jess said. “Even though we rank them, and don’t have to.”
Dev cautiously extended her boots and crossed them. She was now relatively warm, and sitting next to Jess was making her feel even warmer.
The crew was watching them. Dev could see them glancing over, then glancing away, as they filed passed the back counter and came away with steaming bowls clutched in their hands. Whatever it was smelled good, and Dev felt her stomach growling in response.
She spotted one of the women approaching and she glanced at Jess. “Are we expected to help?”
Jess laughed. “No.” She nodded at the woman, who had brought over two bowls with eating utensils stuck haphazardly in them. She took one and Dev took the other. “Thanks.”
The woman didn’t say a word to them. She just turned and went back over to the work area.
Dev watched her go. “Did we do something to cause discomfort?”
Jess sniffed her bowl, then picked up the combination spoon and fork and fished out some fish, nibbling it cautiously. “Nah.” She licked her lips. “These guys like their women, but they like them quiet and busy cleaning and cooking and taking care of the kids.”
Dev took a spoonful of the wet, lumpy substance and found it quite tasty. “I see.”
“They’re fine with that, but they think we’re freaks,” Jess said. “I’ve been called everything from unnatural to a monster up here by the ice.” She shrugged. “Even when I was here as a kid, they tried to make me help them. I kicked one of them in the crotch and they left me alone.”
“I see.”
“That’s why they warned us when we came on not to go around the ship alone. Not that it worries me,” Jess said. “I’ve got more firepower strapped to my body than they could buy with a dozen hauls on this thing.”
“I’ll make sure to stay close by you then,” Dev said. “Because I don’t have anything dangerous tied to me.”
Jess chuckled. “These guys aren’t impressed by us being Interforce, but Sigurd knows my rep and if he’s got any sense he’ll have told his roughnecks to steer clear.”
Dev ate what was in the bowl, looking up when she heard footsteps approaching to find Sigurd and another man hunkering down next to them.
“I’m not gonna chase the storm edge,” Sigurd said. “I got word we had a big pack ice break northeast of the divide. I’m going to take us out there and you’re gonna find me another haul. How about it?”
Jess considered his words as she continued to eat. “Northeast,” she said, after a pause. “Sure that’s smart?”
Dev blinked, since she’d figured in her head that northeast was exactly where Jess said she wanted to go.
Sigurd gave them both a reckless appearing grin. “Scared? ‘Fraid the abominable snowman’s gonna getcha?” He looked mockingly at Jess. “I let the crew know you nailed that bait ball we pulled onboard. Now they want to see if it was a fluke.”
“Not my job to find fish for you,” Jess said. “You want to risk taking this tub into the ice pack? You can drop me off on a berg. Not my idea of fun.” She scraped the bottom of the bowl. “What makes you think you’ll find any fish there anyway? Maybe you’re just looking to embarrass us.”
Sigurd laughed. “Maybe I am,” he said. “I guess we’ll just find out won’t we?” He got up and tapped the man with him on the head. “Let’s go, Lars. Tell the crew they got till mids, then they need to start cranking.”
Jess watched them go, tipping her bowl up to drain the last of the liquid into her mouth. Then she let her elbows rest on her knees and licked her lips. “Nice.”
Dev just scratched her nose, having nothing really to add to that. She poked in her bowl and scooped up a bit of fish, chewing it thoughtfully. The meal was mostly that, with thick, well cooked pieces of seaweed in it and it was a little spicy.
From her peripheral vision, she saw the women take away their work materials, moving off through a heavy door set in the center of the common space. “What’s in there?” She indicated the door.
Jess glanced at it. “That’s where they live. Got some common crew quarters on the outer corridor, where we got put. In there’s where the kids usually are, and where they bunk. I was surprised when you said you saw them outside.”
“I see.” Dev set the bowl down and picked up her scanner, adjusting it and directing the beacon toward the door. The wiremap came back quickly, diagramming a dense, compact space of three levels that had a number of hot targets scattered across the rooms.
Jess peered at it. “Don’t let them see you doing that,” She said, in a very low tone. “They take their private space very seriously. But get as much detail as you can.”
“Okay.” Dev tuned the device, aware of Jess’s body pressed against hers. After a few minutes, she turned the scanner off and let it hang from the strap around her neck. “What do we do now?”
“Wait.” Jess stood up and stretched. “Wait for us to get into this back of beyond spot he’s got his eye on. Let’s go get some rest, Devvie.”
Dev’s brows twitched at this morphing of her name, but she got up and followed Jess across the open space, her balance only slightly tested as the ship seemed to have found a less fractious path for a few minutes. She set her bowl in a deep sunken space with the rest of them and tried to ignore the intent stares from the men they were passing.
Jess seemed oblivious. She led them toward the side door in the bulkhead and worked the wheel latch that held it shut. She pulled it open and ducked inside, with Dev right behind her as they moved from the stale, flickering light of the common room to the dim, burnished orange glow of the corridor.
Here, the motion didn’t matter as much as the space was barely large enough to admit Jess’s shoulders when she was facing forward. The walls were rough and covered in old weld points, and the lights themselves were wrapped in steel and thick gritty glass.
They were alone in the corridor.
“What is this area?” Dev asked, as they went through a slightly wider space.
Jess looked. “Probably was an engineering station,” she said. “Most of these old boats are from that last big fight. When humanity realized they were so fucked they couldn’t afford open warfare anymore and they abandoned everything.”
“Oh.” Dev examined the now dark consoles with some interest. “So the fishermen took them over?”
“Some of them, yeah.” Jess reached their little space and bumped the door open. “No locks,” she said, as she entered, ducking her head to clear the hatch. “There were the very few who could get the creds to run them, since they had fish to trade.” She waited for the hatch to shut behind Dev and then she examined the latch, removing her long knife and wedging it in place to keep the mechanism closed.
“I see.”
Jess went over to where she’d lashed her pack and stood quietly for a moment, studying it. Then she touched the bio patch on the side and regarded the gentle green light that flashed briefly before she opened it. “Least they’ve got some brains here.”
Dev had done the same to her pack. “Did you expect someone to come in and disturb our things?”
“Never can tell.” Jess started divesting herself of her weapons. “More expect the kids to come in looking for swag than anyone else. They’re always looking for trade goods.” She unfastened and removed her jacket and hung it on one of the two hooks near the hatchway.
Beneath the hooks there was a metal grilled box split in two, and Jess deposited her boots in one side of it. “I remember hearing stories about those times, whe
n this was a fighting ship. Remind me to look ‘em up when we get back home.”
Home. Dev stood up and took off her outer coat, putting it on the hook next to Jess’s and feeling the cool damp of the room penetrate her jumpsuit. She’d never really had much to call her own at the crèche, so the thought of her quiet, spacious quarters in the citadel being home was surprisingly appealing to her. “Okay.”
“Cold?” Jess was watching her.
“A little.” Dev rubbed her arms. “I’m glad we brought these.” She indicated her dark green jumpsuit, which at least covered her pretty much from head to foot. “Jess, you seemed in discomfort when they said where we were going. Didn’t you want to go that way?”
Jess unpacked her sleep bag and was spreading it out on the top bunk. She chuckled softly. “I do,” she said. “I’m not sure I really want to enter the pack ice, but it’s the right direction, and if he gets a good haul chances are he’ll want to offload where we need to be.”
Dev copied her motions, snapping the hooks at the four edges of her bag to the bed supports. “Okay.”
“But I don’t want him to know that’s what I want,” Jess went on. She was now in her black jumpsuit and she boosted herself up onto the upper bunk and sprawled over her sleep bag, exhaling as her body relaxed. “You scanned for comm, right?”
“Yes.” Dev was just putting her scanner into its dock. She triggered a download of the scan, taking a seat on her bunk and extending her legs out into the small space of the room. “Most of the tech is in that central area. In this space, there’s nothing really except for the lights and a comp in that place I saw the children.”
“Library probably,” Jess said. “Kids were getting lessons.” She stretched and sighed again. “One of the things they trade for in places like Quebec on our side, and Dover on the other side. Comp mods for the kids, and for nav and met.”
“It’s an old comp.” Dev studied the readouts.
“Sure.”
“If I could mod our scan to find the fish, I’m not really sure why someone hasn’t,” Dev said. “We got sine wave mods as basic in school.”
Jess didn’t answer for a few minutes, then she shifted a little, rolling over onto her stomach and peering down at Dev. “I never did.”
Dev looked up in surprise. “You didn’t?”
Jess shook her head. “They teach us what we need to know. Sine wave manipulation wasn’t on the curriculum for front line soldiers in the cause, back in school.” She studied Dev. “There’s a feeling too, I think, that old fashioned goons like the ones here don’t trust tech.”
Dev blinked at her, obviously confused.
“You take tech for granted,” Jess said. “So do I, since my family’s pretty stocked and I went from home to Interforce and there’s plenty of that there. But out here, tech’s like your crazy uncle. Know what I mean?”
“Not in the least.”
Jess chuckled. “These people rely on themselves. Not on outsiders, or tech, or comp. They use it when they can get it, just like they’re using us for their own purposes, but they don’t trust it.”
“Or us.”
“You got it,” Jess said. “So they might trade for something that could do something useful, like that scan, if you could set it to just do the fish finding. They’d never waste their time learning the theory behind it. Does that make sense?”
Dev remained quiet for a brief time. “It makes sense as in, I understand what you said, but it doesn’t make sense as in, how do they expect to make things better if they don’t learn how it all works?” She settled the scanner into its case, making sure the connection to the inductive charging system was solid.
Then she wriggled back and lay down on her bag, watching Jess’s face hanging over the top bunk, its dark and shaggy framing outlined in the low, orange light. “Don’t they want to improve their future?”
“There is no future here,” Jess said. “It’s all short term, just like it is for us. You can’t really think about what you’re going to be doing in a year, or ten years, or even tomorrow, when your focus is on how to survive today.” She extended a hand down and smiled when Dev reached up to grasp it. “Let’s get some rest while we can.”
Dev squeezed her fingers then let her go, squirming around and getting the bag’s covering over her, relieved when the light, strong fabric immediately trapped the air around her and warmed it. She wished, briefly, that they were back in the carrier, uncomfortable as that had been, since then at least they’d been able to sleep next to each other.
Warmer. She remembered the feeling she’d had when she’d woken up before, with Jess’s arm draped over her. Warmer, and nicer.
She thought about the fishing people, living from day to day.
She thought about school, and all the things she’d learned and never wondered why and about the kids here who were only taught the things they needed to know to do what they did.
She wondered, a moment, about what really the difference was between natural borns and bio alts.
“Hey.” Jess’s voice interrupted her.
“Yes?”
“Y’know, it’s warmer up here.”
On the other hand, Dev now found herself appreciating the need to deal with the present. “Is it?”
“C’mon and see.”
Well. Keeping warm was important, wasn’t it? Dev climbed out of her nest and lifted herself up onto the upper bunk, where Jess was already enfolding her in fabric and a tangle of long arms and legs and, she was glad to note, much warmer air.
Nice.
Chapter Twenty-One
THEY WOKE TO chaos. The lights had gone completely off, and a klaxon blared suddenly, making the walls vibrate as it jerked them both upright.
Dev was glad they hadn’t decided to meet up in her bunk on the bottom or else she suspected Jess would have been knocked out cold. She felt Jess shift and she quickly tried to get out of the way, as the sheets pulled tight against her.
“What the fuck?” Jess released the catches on the sleeping bag. “Don’t move.” She planted her hands on either side of Dev. “Coming over.”
Dev pressed flat against the bed, her heart hammering as she felt Jess launch herself over her, landing on the ground with a thump of bare feet against steel. Once she was sure Jess was clear she reached down and grabbed the scanner, turning it on and using the screen to light up the cabin they were in
Jess was halfway into her jumpsuit, now outlined in the blue silver glow. “Thanks,” she said. “Let me get this suit on then you grab yours. I want you with me.”
Dev had absolutely no argument with that at all. She waited for Jess to move toward her over jacket and then she slipped out of the bag and rooted around for her own clothes. She left the scanner leaning against the bedpost and jumped into her suit, getting the catches closed just as a voice blared on the speaker calling battle stations.
Battle stations?
“Looks like they kept the old comm chips.” Jess had her coat on, and was seating her weapons in their holsters. “Once we get out to the deck keep that scan on and recording. If this goes way bad they’ll want to pick up the comp.”
Dev was pretty sure she didn’t really want to know what that meant. She got her jacket on and slipped the scanner around her neck, fastening the outer closures as she reached down for her boots.
The klaxon continued. Jess got her boots on and headed for the hatch. “Stick close.” She yanked her knife free and sheathed it, and then worked the latch and shoved the door open, ducking to get through it as she flipped on the light from her kit and slapped it into place along the axis of her blaster.
The hallway beyond was also dark, and the ship was rolling, sending them slamming from side to side as they made their way aft toward the working part of the ship.
Dev heard running feet, and the whine of machinery and the sound of men yelling. Above that though, she heard a roar that didn’t seem to be part of the ocean. She put a hand on Jess’s hip and stayed close by her
, the sound of the klaxon making her grimace as they passed under one of the speakers.
They reached the door and Jess put her shoulder to the hatch and shoved it open, hauling herself back and sweeping Dev behind her as they were hit with a blast of light.
Then the light was gone and Jess surged forward. “I got a bad feeling about this.” She hopped out the hatch and onto the deck, and bolted for the bulkhead wall.
It was loud and chaotic. There were crew behind several walls and the pedestal, all yelling, the laser traces of hand blasters blinking in the darkness in multihued flares.
Dev followed, seeing the blast of light cascade across the deck, coming from above. She tipped her head back as she headed for where Jess was flattened, seeing a huge silhouette momentarily outlined in backwash against roiling black skies.
Programming triggered, and she sucked in a shocked breath as she reached Jess’s side. “Jess!”
Jess unsafed her heavy blaster. “Yeah?”
“That’s a carrier over us.”
“You got a look at it?” Jess turned and stared intently at her, going otherwise very still.
“Really fast one,” Dev said. “But it matched a pict image.” She touched the side of her head. “Older type, BM series, not like ours. Smaller engine cones, bench inside, multiple launch attack model.”
Jess sighed. “Fuck.” She gently pushed Dev against the wall. “Stand there, poke the scan out that square hole and just get good vid of what I do.”
“Okay,” Dev said, feeling unhappy and incorrect. “Take care.”
Jess smiled briefly. Then she closed her eyes, and took a breath in, letting it out slowly. Dev could see visible tension coming into her body, and when her eyes reopened, there was an intense, cold focus in them that shocked her.
Then Jess simply exploded into motion, coming around the bulkhead and onto the deck just as it lit up with a huge flare of white light, that outlined forms dropping from the sky.