Partners: Book Two, page 16
There was something still, of that corporal reverence. But then life would go on, and they would continue to live in the way they had for generations now, the only way they’d been able to manage.
“So.” Jake shifted. “That’s done.”
“Bye, Mom,” Jess said. “Sorry we never got a chance to be human to each other, there at the end.”
“Sorry you never got to see me spawn,” Jake said, giving his sister a sideways glance. “Finally got an allotment. Sagra’s pregnant.”
Jess smiled briefly. “Congratulations.”
The crowd was breaking up and going back inside, already talking of other things. Jimmy came over to them, folding his arms across his chest and glancing briefly out to sea. “Glad you could make it out, Jess,” he said. “Let’s go have lunch. Trade some stories. Tayler wants to see his aunt. I think we’ve all had a lot of changes lately.”
His eyes flicked to Dev, who returned his look with bland politeness.
“Sure,” Jess said. “We’d love to.” She spoke for her three companions, who were really in no place to argue about it. “You can give me all the details on what happened to Mom.”
“And you can tell us all about those gold bars and the new recruits,” Jimmy countered. “After you?”
“After you.”
JESS RESTED HER wrists on the big, old table, salvaged from who knew what, how many generations back in Drake history. It was wood, which was rare enough, but it had patterned inlay and a decayed, stately elegance that was now very rare. It had been the dining table she remembered from her childhood, big enough for a dozen or more to eat around it and close to the big kitchen with its baking pit and cook tops.
Here it was private lunch, bowls of food passed around the table and her brother’s families along with two old aunts and an ancient uncle seated around sharing it.
Little Tayler was there, sitting next to her left hand side, with Dev on her right. He was busy showing her a starfish, found apparently just that morning on the reef. He had a tangle of dark brown curls and a snub nose, and no idea what was about to happen to him.
He would probably miss the same things she had.
She felt unsettled, as she usually did here. Aware at some level of a sense of faded familiarity, yet aware that people watched her constantly, perhaps waiting for her to lose it and get crazy on someone.
Strange love hate relationship, with both the idea of, and the reality of Interforce. “That’s a nice starfish, Tayler,” Jess told her nephew. “Find it at the point?”
“Yes.” Tayler put a finger between the arms of the petrified thing and moved it in a circle. “I like it.”
“Me too.” Jess reached over to help him turn the item, remembering sitting at this table, younger than he was now, doing more or less the same thing.
Tayler looked past her at Dev, and gave Dev a shy smile. “Hello.”
Dev smiled back. “Hello.”
“You like my starfis?”
Jess was glad of the distraction, and she was content to watch the kid engage with Dev, who being closer to his size, apparently was a fascination.
“I do,” Dev said. “I have a vid of a bear. Would you like to see it?”
Tayler’s eyes lit up. “A bear? A real bear? Daddy! Daddy! She saw a bear!”
Everyone looked up and over at the excited child, then Jimmy eyed Dev warily. “She did, huh?” He looked over at Jess. “You all up in the white? Hadn’t heard that.”
Dev got up and came around to where Tayler was bouncing in his chair, pulling her comp out and calling up the vid. “The bear was really amazing. We saw baby ones too.”
“We were up in the white,” Jess said. “Just got back. I saw great uncle Jacob, matter of fact.”
“That old coot?” Jake spoke up. “Haven’t seen his fishy ass in years. He still remember you?”
“Oh, wow!” Tayler was glued to the comp screen, as Dev ran through the vid she had of the bears, ending with the three animals watching them as they escaped into the cavern, the baby’s tiny faces and cupped ears outlined against the ice. “That’s cool!”
“He remembered me,” Jess said. “They’re doing all right. Should trade more on this side of the fence though.”
“They pay more,” Jake commented shortly. “Got plenty of hard cred over there.”
Everyone looked a little uncomfortable, watching Jess closely. She was aware of that, but shrugged. “I know. I sold them a hold full of one of his boat’s catch. Made more than I take a year.” She chewed a mouthful of leaf seaweed and mushrooms, along with a forkful of the whole fish fillet on her plate. “There’s a reason market island’s over on that side. That’s where the cred is.”
“Maybe not now for a while,” Jake said, glancing at her. “Heard they had a big loss half month back or so. Whole research processing center gone.”
“Yeah?” Jess looked mildly at him.
“Trading boat came through yesterday, early,” Jimmy said. “Telling a story of some crazy ass lone gun shooting out half the damn side of Gibraltar.”
It got quiet. Everyone focused on Jess, who stolidly kept chewing. She eventually swallowed, and then looked at Dev, who was kneeling next to her. “You think I’m crazy ass?”
Dev regarded her solemnly. “I don’t think I’m programmed to comment about your ass.”
April stifled a laugh.
Jess looked back across the table. “My first mission with my new partner,” she said, briefly. “Let’s just say it was a payback for turning Josh.”
“So you got ”˜em there, little Jessy?” Uncle Matt spoke up. “Kicked ”˜em where it hurt? Good on ya.” He nodded to himself, munching on his fish. “More of ”˜em dead, the better.”
Jess smiled, and Mari, Jimmy’s wife, changed the subject. There was a lot of that around family dinner tables, when you were part of an in-service clan. Uncle Matt could be excused though, because he’d lost everything to the other side, a wife, three kids, and a homestead along with his left arm and a foot.
Matter of fact Jess was glad to have taken a piece out of them for him. “So where was the old woman coming back from?”
“Council meeting,” Jimmy said. “They had a vote up for the east flats. A bunch of lower caverners petitioned to open a station there. Vote went for them. I’m not sure it’s worth it though.”
“Not enough shells?” Jess asked.
“They’re trying for independent status,” Jimmy replied. “There’s no facility out there.”
“Uh huh. So she was headed back here after that, just after the vote? No stops?” Jess asked. “Any comp from the flyer?”
“Nothing left of it,” Jake said. “She probably tied one on before she left. You know what she was like.” He studied Jess. “Hey, well maybe you didn’t. She went for the bottle last couple years.”
“So they figure she splatted from that? They’ll take her benefits,” Jess said. “Didn’t she have shares in this place?”
Everyone now looked very uncomfortable. Dev had gone back to her seat and Tayler was playing with his food, ignoring what was going on around the table. “C’mon, people. I don’t have a stake in it,” Jess said. “I’m just asking.”
“Right now they’re calling it a weather related accident,” Jimmy said, stiffly. “Her benefits come back to the family pool. She hadn’t made a formal arrangement with anyone else.”
“She was never part of this family.” Auntie Grace spoke up. “Only made the arrangement with your father to get her hands on a piece of this place.”
April and Doug looked vaguely embarrassed, but Jess lifted a hand in their direction. “Sorry. Shoulda warned you,” she said. “My family’s as assholish as I usually am.”
Doug cleared his throat. “My dad’s a senior councilor out on Rainier Island. I know the drill,” he said. “He’s had women after him for years, after my mother passed.” He glanced at April. “Not your gig, I know.”
“No,” April said. “Not with a bunch of traveling nomads. No land, no fighting over it.” She had a low, intense voice. “But I know all about asshole families, thanks.”
“Anyway.” Jimmy pushed his dish aside a little. “So yeah, it ended up good for us. She’d have taken a thirty percent share out, and I don’t know what she’d have brought back in here.” He lifted his gaze and met Jess’s. “But now, either way, it’s not an issue.”
Jess nodded.
“Can I talk to you a minute in private, Jess?” Jimmy said. “We don’t get much chance.”
Jess stood and moved around her chair, putting a hand on Dev’s shoulder and pressing it before she joined her brother at the back door to the dining hall. They passed through and down a corridor, then into a smaller room lined with shelves. One section of the back wall of the chamber had a clear block in it, and past that you could see the bay.
“So.” Jess took a seat in one of the chairs, and put her elbows on the arms. “What’s up?”
He went over and perched on the workspace at the back of the room. “Before I call you out as bullshit, I’d like to know why the hell you just put out that crap about you having no stake in this?”
It wasn’t often Jess found herself completely dumbfounded, but in this case, she was. “Huh?” She managed to get out, her brows knitting over a creased forehead. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The shares.” He glared at her. “Your shares.”
Jess looked around as if trying to find some other person he could be referring to. “Are you stupid?” she asked. “I have no shares. Remember? I had to sign away my homestead rights when I graduated field school. I have no more stake in this place than I have a horn growing out of my head.”
He stared at her. “You don’t know?” he said, after a long pause. “He never told you?”
“Told me what?” Jess spread her hands out. “What are you talking about?”
Slowly, he straightened and got up, walking behind the workspace and sitting down behind it. “You really don’t know,” he repeated, in a half exasperated, half wondering tone. “Son of a bitch.” His hands fell to the chair arms. “Well here see it for yourself.” He reached into one of the workspace pockets and drew out a pad, keying something up and handing it across the desk at her. “We all thought you knew.”
Jess got up and grabbed the pad. “I don’t know shit about...” She paused, as her eyes scanned over the screen and she absorbed its contents. “What in the hell did he do here?” She slowly sat down again. “He can’t have processed this. I’m not eligible. He knew that.”
“He didn’t give a shit,” Jimmy said. “He told us we were a bunch of losers, and the old woman was a thief. He coded all his shares out of the pool and locked them to your civ profile.”
Jess studied the readout, running through it a few times. “Well.” She tossed the pad back on the workspace. “I’ll never transition to that profile, so it makes no difference anyway. I’ll never survive to fully retire. He was just being an asshole.”
“He survived.”
“I’m not him,” Jess said, in a clipped tone. “I’m crazier than he was, and we both know it.”
Jimmy exhaled, and slumped a little in the chair. “Seeing that thing with you I believe it. He’d never go for that.” He looked up to see the icy look directed at him. “They looking to make sure you don’t survive?”
“She got me these gold bars.” Jess touched her throat. “That thing’s for real.”
“Really?”
“Really. And you call her a thing to her face and I’ll break both your arms,” Jess said, in a mild tone. “Now that I’ve relieved your avaricious ass and you don’t have to worry about me tossing you and your useless brother and these suck-ons that live here out, we done?”
Jimmy had the grace to at least look embarrassed. “Sorry, Jess,” he said. “I really thought you knew.”
“And I was just laughing at you?” Jess snapped back. “Fuck you.”
He exhaled. “The old woman thought you knew. That’s why she was so damned pissed off at you these last years. She wangled it all so she could get controlling shares, and he screwed her.” He said, “She finally gave up, no way to get around his lock.”
“She wanted controlling shares of this place?” Jess felt her anger sidetracked.
“We all do,” Jimmy said, straightforwardly. “This place gets directed by committee right now. Who we trade with, what we trade, who gets to stretch out, who gets to take the boats—pain in the ass. One person has all the shares, they make the rules.”
Jess thought about that, then laughed. “Our father knew what the hell he was doing. Tie up those shares in me, and no one wins.”
“Unless you sign them over.”
“Fuck you.” Jess got up. “One, I can’t unless I’m a civ, and two, I’d rather ram my head through that door.” She headed for the aforementioned portal.
“Jess.” Jimmy stood up. “Before you storm out and slam the door behind you, can I ask you a question?”
Jess turned, and waited.
“When you finished field school and were going into service, you ever think about turning it down and coming home?”
Jess tilted her head a little, and studied him. Then she came back across the room and stood on the other side of the desk, leaning forward and resting her knuckles on the surface. “You don’t get that choice, Jimmy,” she said, in a very quiet voice.
“But they told us—”
“You get to the end of field, and the grad ceremony, and then, late that night, they take you, one at a time, Bain does, to Eagles’ Point and he tells you the bitter truth of what you are. And you can either accept that, and go into service, or he kills you.”
Her brother stared at her in silence.
“You put Tayler on that transport, he’s never coming home,” Jess said, after a long pause. “Now that’s something daddy really should have told you.” She straightened and walked quietly to the door, opening it and passing through, letting it shut behind her with a gentle click.
THEY WERE BACK in the carrier, the hatch shutting with a thump as they cleared the opening. “That’s that.” Jess went to her station and sat down. “Let’s get things buttoned down and get out of here.”
Dev sat down in the tech chair. “Jess?”
“Hmm?”
“There’s a lot of discomfort here.”
Jess sighed and sat back. “Yeah, it’s pretty fucked up. Reminds me again why I don’t come here a lot.” She let her hands drop to her thighs. “So now what do we do?” She looked at Dev. “Ditch our escorts and head east?” she asked. “Ready to go destroy our careers?”
“If you mean we’re going to go help Doctor Dan, I agree with that,” Dev said. “But I hope we don’t cause our teammates discomfort. They seem agreeable people.”
Jess chuckled softly. “Ah, maybe we’ll just go back to base.” She sighed. “I don’t really have a plan, and they’re all gunning for me. Not really much chance of our getting in there.”
Dev was ready to accept that decision too. The entire day had been very unsettling, and the only moment she’d liked was showing the vid of the bear to the little boy. Everything else had been tense and uncomfortable, and she was really glad they were leaving now.
Doug and April were too, they’d said as much as they walked back to the shuttle bay. Dev thought about it and decided she would really like to go back to the base, and relax and not get into trouble. “I like that idea more,” she said. “Maybe we can practice—”
“Sex?” Jess grinned at her.
“I was going to say surfing, but that would be good too.” Dev smiled back.
“Yeah, all right,” Jess said. “Get this pony on the road. Let’s go home.”
Dev swiveled her chair around and started up her systems. Outside the window, she could see Doug doing the same, and though she couldn’t help thinking of Doctor Dan, and what he was doing, she also couldn’t deny she was glad they were going back to the citadel.
She thought maybe Jess was glad too. “I do think your place here is very nice.”
Jess chuckled briefly. “Yeah, it’s probably the oldest, and the most developed homestead in the east. They’ve got a few that old on the west coast. Jason’s Rainier Island place is one of them, but Drake’s Bay’s a good place to live.” She leaned back and waited as Dev booted the bus. “It’s the biggest trading center in the area. Got nice big turbines down below, generates a surplus of power they sell to the battery plants, and is pretty much self-sufficient. “
“I see.”
Jess folded her arms over her chest and sighed. “Stupid family.”
Dev wisely refrained from comment, settling her ear cups in place and activating her restraints. The chair gimbaled forward and she started to make adjustments, reaching over to disconnect the docking umbilical and switching to internal power. She’d heard Doug and April discuss their families, seen Jess’s, and remembered hearing Jason gripe about his. She was starting to ponder the possibility that being a bio alt, and having no family, wasn’t entirely an awful thing.
They eased from the shuttle dock and formed up over the bay, as Dev triggered the nav that would take them on a course north and east. “Jess? We just got a weather warning.” She shunted the met alert back to her partner’s station.
Jess keyed up the report and studied it. “That’s a big one coming over the citadel,” she said. “We’ll just go a little slow and come in behind it.” She dismissed the met and leaned back. “Tell the kids to follow us.”
Dev glanced in the mirror. Then she opened the sideband channel and hailed the other carrier, as she gave the engines power and they moved offshore and away from Drake’s Bay.
Jess twiddled her thumbs idly and listened to Dev chat with Doug, already thinking ahead to what her options were next. Should she have taken the chance to go rogue? Should she—
Jess turned her head as her comp caught sight of something and started tracking it. “Dev?”
“Yes?”
“Give my board power.” Jess moved her seat a bit closer and put the target on the big board, the comp resolving it into not one but two images. “We’ve got something coming at us.”
