Partners: Book Two, page 10
“They’re gonna grab them off you!” Doug yelled, in excitement. “Stripe of a skunk!”
“BR270006.” The comms bawled suddenly. “Hold in position! Hold! Hold!”
“Never heard ops do that before,” Brent said, his eyes wide.
“Holding,” Dev answered calmly, though she was panting a little, her own eyes big and round, her hands making adjustments almost every second as she watched the big crane swing over, its grapples dropping through the air with frightening speed.
A moment later, and they heard the clang as the grapples caught on, and Dev had just barely enough time to throttle back as the weight came off them and they nearly rocketed skyward. She tipped the carrier on its side and then rolled it over as she cut off the main engines and got the landing jets back in control.
“Ahhh!” Brent yelped, as he was spun in the air, his arms suspending him from the console as they inverted, then returned to standard orientation.
“Sorry about that.” They were up near the ceiling now, and Dev tipped them forward a little so they could see the grapples moving the rescued carrier over to one of the service bays, where emergency teams were racing. “They got them!”
“Holy shit that was crazy making,” Brent blurted. “How in the hell did you learn to drive like that?”
Dev waited a bit for her hands to stop shaking and then she let out a breath. “That was interesting,” she muttered, before she triggered comms. “BR270006 to central operations, cleared to return to pad?”
There was a bit of silence before comms answered. “BR270006 cleared,” they finally answered, with a roar of sound in the background, of voices and alerts.
“Thank you.” Dev shut down the engines and adjusted the jets, lowering them back to their landing pad as quickly as she could, and feeling the intense tension in her body relax as they touched down and she could power down. She let her hands rest on the chair arms for a moment, then she started her shut down procedures. “That.” She half turned to face Doug and Brent. “Isn’t programming.”
“That’s crazy.” Brent sat up and rubbed his elbow. “You mean you didn’t learn it?”
Dev shook her head. “Programming lets me know what buttons to push and how to make things work, but when I’m doing this.” She looked at her hands. “I just do it.”
Doug released the restraints on the chair and leaned forward. “You know what?” He eyed her. “That’s hot.”
Dev swung around in her chair and regarded him, her head cocking to one side. “What?”
“That’s hot,” he repeated. “You’re the bomb.”
There was no real time to answer, because motion caught her eye and Dev turned to see Jess barreling toward them at top speed, leaping over bays and tools in a powerful flow of motion that immediately focused her attention. She released her restraints and stood up, her legs feeling a bit shaky as she moved across the floor of the carrier and triggered the hatch.
Jess bounded inside a breath later. “Are you all right?”
Dev looked around, then at her, then she nodded. “Yes,” she replied. “I think Brent bumped his head, though, when we inverted.”
“That was crazy.” Doug hastily vacated Jess’ s station.
Brent got up off the floor and dusted himself off. “No, that wasn’t crazy,” he said. “That was just mad skills. She’s got them.” He gave Jess a brief nod, then he slipped past her, with Doug at his heels, leaving Jess and Dev alone together in the carrier, the hatch sliding shut behind them.
Jess put her hands on her hips. “I think everyone in this place now knows you have mad skills,” she said wryly. “Whole ops center nearly went out of their minds when you lit off the rockets.”
Dev wasn’t sure if this was all good or bad. “I had to,” she said. “The jets weren’t enough to keep us from crashing.”
“I know.” Jess grinned. “But pretty much no one would have had the guts to do that because you could have sent yourself into the cavern wall.”
“I wouldn’t have done that,” Dev said, seriously. “Really.” She looked past Jess. “Who was that? What was wrong with that machine?”
Jess turned. “Let’s go find out.” She paused, then turned back again, putting her arms around Dev and giving her a hug. “Glad you’re okay,” she muttered. “You kind of freaked me out a little.”
Dev happily returned the embrace, reasoning it probably meant she did more or less the right things. “I didn’t mean to,” she said. “I just wanted to help that carrier.”
“If anyone’s still alive in that thing, you saved them.” Jess turned and triggered the hatch. “Let’s go see.” She walked out with Dev right behind her. “You put a dent in the roof?”
“I hope not,” Dev said.
They cleared the pad, and as they did, Dev realized they were the center of attention. Then she paused in her mind, and realized actually that she was the center of attention. All techs had been climbing up out of the pits and they were staring at her with wide eyes. Even the maintenance supervisors were standing there, watching them walk by.
“Was that incorrect?” she asked Jess, a little embarrassed by the focus. “What I did?”
Jess put her hand on her shoulder as they walked. “No,” she said after a long silence. “You did the right thing. Everyone is just sort of surprised that you decided to do it.”
“They are?”
Jess nodded. “But I wasn’t,” she added. “Let’s find out what’s going on, then we can talk about it.”
Dev felt better about that. She didn’t think she was going to get in trouble, or that Jess was upset with her. But she hadn’t really thought about that before she acted, and that did bother her.
Think and then act. That was what Doctor Dan always taught them.
Safety teams were spraying down the damaged carrier, and as they arrived at the work pad Jason and Elaine joined them, along with two of the new agent teams. Doug’s partner April was there, and Mike Arias came trotting up with his partner Chester as they all came to a halt beyond the safety zone.
“Holy crap,” Jason said, after a brief pause. “Looks like that thing flew through a volcano.”
A medical team raced past, ignoring the potential danger as they set up a triage point. Stephen Bock followed them, but paused at the group of agents on the ramp, stopping right in front of Dev. “They program you for flights into insanity?”
Jess bristled.
Dev took the question at face value though. “No, I don’t think so,” she said. “Just a lot about how to fly a carrier, and a little bit about parabolic dynamics.” She paused. “And physics.”
Bock looked at her, then looked at Jess, taking a half step back at the expression he found on her face. Then he shook his head and went up to the med point. “Let’s just hope it was worth it,” he called back over his shoulder. “And there’s something still alive in this thing.”
“He is in discomfort,” Dev said, mournfully.
Jess relaxed, and chuckled softly under her breath. “All along, they’ve said you can’t use bio alts in the force because they can’t make a decision, Dev.” She turned her head and eyed her partner. “And you just proved that wrong. He’s not in discomfort. He’s scared shitless.”
Dev frowned, but remained silent as Jess draped her arm over her shoulders, not sure if she’d done that at all.
ALEXANDER BAIN SAT at the head of the ops table, elbows leaning on it, chin resting on his fists. The other chairs were filled with agents and ops management, with Stephen Bock taking an uneasy seat to his right.
Jess was in her usual seat at the other end, her hands clasped on the table in front of her, her eyes fixed soberly on her folded thumbs.
The doors sealed, compressing the air in the room a little, and Bain cleared his throat. “Well, people, every day seems to bring us new challenges, doesn’t it?” He glanced at Bock and lifted an eyebrow.
“Five dead, two alive, both critically injured,” Stephen said. “Med thinks Syd will make it. The other one, not sure.”
Bain grunted thoughtfully. “Let’s hope we get some information from one or the other, hmm? I’m told the carrier systems are nonfunctional.”
“That’s true,” Stephen said. “Everything gave out just as they cleared the bay roof.”
“So I hear.” Bain looked over at Jess. “I hear your charming companion intervened to assist, saving us from a good deal more messiness.”
Jess nodded. “Dev launched and caught them as they dropped, kept them up long enough for the grapples to take hold,” she said, in a matter of fact voice. “Good piece of flying.”
“Never saw anyone do anything like that before,” Elaine said. “Not inside a space that small.”
Nods and murmurs. “Dev says, she got used to dealing with three dimensional movement up in space,” Jess said. “So maybe that has something to do with it. She’s not oriented the same way, I don’t think.”
“Hmm.” Bain considered that. “I wonder if we could contract time on station, perhaps? As part of training.”
“Why not just get all our techs from there from now on?” Jason spoke up, in a mild voice. “I’m sold. I like Brent, but holy crap.”
Bain smiled thinly, and exchanged looks with Jess. “That’s for the future,” he said. “Right now, it seems, we have a great deal of destruction to account for at Northern.” He glanced to his right. “Mr. Bock, please assemble a recovery team, and start there at once. Find out what you can.”
“Sir.” Stephen nodded.
Jess drew breath to protest, then stopped when Bain’s eyes swiveled back to her, and his eyebrow hiked. She kept her tongue still, rewarded with a brief smile from him.
“If the damage is as I expect,” Bain said. “It will not go un-countered.”
Jess relaxed, and settled back in her chair, sure in her own mind who’d be picked to execute that plan. She had no love lost for Syd, or any of his people, but the corps was the corps and she’d take vengeance for them as readily as if they’d been part of Base Ten.
“In the meantime, find out what you can from the condition of that vehicle,” Bain said. “The damage seems...ah...more extensive than I would expect from the armament we saw on the transports.” He waved his hand. “Go.” His gaze drifted over. “Ah, Drake, stay behind a moment.”
Jess felt no apprehension about the summons. She waited for the room to empty then she got up and went around the table, settling in a seat nearer to him, but not in the front row. “So.”
“So,” he echoed. “We begin to see the potential of your biological alternative team mate.”
Jess smiled briefly. “Didn’t surprise me,” she said. “I don’t think Bricker had any clue what he was introducing in here, but it works.”
Bain nodded. “She does indeed, which could put her in some danger.”
“I’ll watch out for her.”
“I suspect you will.” He studied her. “I’ve received communication from our friends on the other side. A message arrived on the shuttle that recently landed.” He folded his hands over his stomach and leaned back. “To send back the four men from science sector, and Doctor Kurok, their price is you.”
“Me?”
“You. They’ve agreed to a midpoint exchange tomorrow night. They’ll hand over their captives, we hand over you, and they’ll take you and likely do horrible things to you before you die a slow, and no doubt very painful death.”
Jess considered this thoughtfully. Then she looked up and into Bain’s eyes. “Shoot me.”
After a second, his face split into a smile.
“Or let me go, and see if they can take me down, or if I’ll take them out,” Jess said. “They tried that the last time. Didn’t work out so well for them.”
“Ah, my dear.” Bain looked affectionately at her. “You did, indeed, breed true. No we can’t do that, as one of the conditions would be to turn you over immobilized, and they would then inject you with something to keep you that way. They’re taking no chances.”
“Then?” Jess watched his face closely.
“I’ve sent back an answer rejecting their request,” Bain said. “I told them to go ahead and grind them up for fish. That they weren’t worth the price to me.”
Jess felt a little lightheaded. She took a few breaths, trying to absorb the words. “Hard on them,” she finally said. “Our guys that went.”
“Yes,” Bain agreed. “But that’s why they pay me the big bucks. I get to make those kind of decisions.’
They were both quiet for a bit. “Kurok’s a good guy,” Jess said.
“He most certainly is.”
“He’s one of us.” She looked at Bain. “He was a tech.”
“Mm. Yes. He was actually much more than that.” He stood up and paced a little “He was as revolutionary in his own way as your charming companion is,” he said. “But going was his choice. Not mine, and not yours. He knew there was a chance this would be the outcome.”
Jess grunted softly.
“I think he believed if he went, his presence would give some kind of safety to the rest,” Bain said. “He always was an idiot that way.”
Jess considered that. “Do they know who he is?” she asked. “Aside from a scientist from the bio station?”
“That’s a very good question,” Bain said “I suspect they’re most interested in his current persona. They might know of his earlier one, but one never knows. I haven’t revealed that to anyone. Have you?”
Now it was Jess’s turn to get up and pace. “Everyone who saw him in the shuttle bay knows he’s got something to do with us. But I haven’t told anyone but Dev who he was because I didn’t know myself until last night.”
Bain turned. “Last night?”
Jess nodded. “My family sent me a few trunks of my father’s things. There were some plas vid in there.” She leaned her weight on the back of a chair. “He and my dad.”
“I see.” Bain sat down again. “Well, it’s irrelevant in any case. I regret abandoning him, and them, but we don’t make bargains, and we don’t sell our people.” He watched Jess’s reaction sharply. “Do you agree, Agent Drake?”
“I do,” Jess said, after a brief pause. “You start there, where does it end? No deals, no quarter. It’s always been that way.”
Bain looked both relieved, and pleased. “Excellent. Now.” He shifted a little. “Let’s discuss the future, shall we?”
Jess sat back down and rested her elbows on the table. “Sure.”
IT SEEMED LIKE a very long walk from the ops hall to rad. Jess felt like the stone walls were endless, though it gave her time to think as she made her way through the crowd.
She was confused. Being told she’d be taking Bricker’s place should have made her bounce like a crazy person. It was everything she’d ever wanted, or desired, though she felt sorry for Stephen, who Bain was going to send to rebuild Northern.
Awesome, right? She’d be in charge of the whole base, never have to put her ass out on the line, never have to sit in pain as yet another mark was burned into her arm, never end up in med for months or have to argue with the other agents.
The hitch, of course, was Dev. She’d be assigned to another agent, and Bain seemed to think she’d excel and not to worry about it. He was pleased with her, pleased with the program, and had already sent communication up to Life Force for them to proceed with producing more.
So yeah, it had all worked out great, for her, and for Dev, right? Bain sure seemed to think she should think so, and she’d done her best to respond like he expected.
But.
Jess reached her rad station and entered, acknowledging comp and stripping off her jumpsuit. She winced a little as the fabric rubbed against her new mark but then she was free of it, and she walked into the open area, feeling the warmth as the system came on and bathed her in its calming glow.
She sat down and exhaled. She didn’t feel right about it. She just wasn’t sure why.
After a moment, she got back up and went to comms, pulling a pad over and requesting Dev’s whereabouts. Not unexpectedly, Dev was in the mechanical store and Jess hesitated, then entered the key for that area. “Let me talk to Dev,” she said, when it was answered.
A moment later, Dev’s voice echoed softly down the link. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Jess. You done down there? C’mon over to my rad.”
“Absolutely,” Dev responded, then clicked off.
Jess let her hand fall, and then she went back over to the couch and sat down. Dev deserved to hear it all from her, didn’t she? At least she could reassure her that she wasn’t going to head back up to the creche. Jess was pretty sure her partner...
Her partner.
Jess sighed. “I knew I shouldn’t have done that,” she chastised herself. “Screwed myself over. Now I—” She thought about Dev partnering with someone else, going out in the field with someone else, and to her surprise it made her really, really angry.
That was just wrong. Dev was a tech, and she was a really good tech, so why not want her to be successful?
Why not?
Jess stared at her hands, a brief flash of memory filling her mind’s eye with waking up that morning in Dev’s bed. Why not? Because she wanted Dev to be with her, not out in the field with someone else, someone who might want to share a sleep sack with her and then what would Dev do?
Her stomach hurt. Jess couldn’t remember feeling this confused and in mental turmoil for a very long time. It was unpleasant and she thought she might even throw up.
A soft knock came at the door, and she ran out of time for that. “Come.”
The panel slid open and Dev ducked inside, a smudge of silicon grease across the bridge of her nose. “Did you need something? It sounded urgent.”
Jess took a breath. “Yeah, c’mon in,” she said. “Let’s talk.”
Dev shed her work suit and joined her in the rad area. “Some excellent parts came in. I got some of them for our carrier, and I’m going to see about getting them installed.”
