Partners: Book Two, page 6
Home. Dev swallowed hard and got everything online, slipping her ear cups on and tuning comms to listen. The external sensors of the carrier brought her the sound of the storm, and the crackling of ice and she nearly jumped when Jess very gently curled her hand around a warm cup. “Oh!”
“Take it easy.” Jess patted her on the back. “Don’t freak out on me, okay?”
Dev took a sip of the hot liquid. “I won’t,” she said. “I don’t even know what a freak is, much less how to get one out.” She exhaled slowly. “I hope the storm stops soon. I don’t want us to get in trouble.”
“It’s gonna be fine, Dev. We’ll work it all out when we get back. We don’t...I don’t think we have enough information to know what’s going on anyway.”
“Okay.”
Jess let her hands drop onto Dev’s shoulders, but she remained quiet. She watched the ruffled water as she started up an absent, gentle massage, listening to Dev swallow. As she felt her own breathing come under control, the tension under her fingertips relaxed.
Dev glanced at the comp. “I think met is showing a break,” she said. “Should we go?”
“Go,” Jess said, releasing her and returning to her console, dropping into her seat and fastening the body restraints. She felt the rumble of the engines as the power to them increased. She reached over and picked up her own tea cup, leaning back as the landing jets fired and they started to move.
She had a little time, now. Time for them to fly to the base, a long flight since they wouldn’t be stopping at Quebec to break it.
Time for her to think, and to consider things. Review all the comp. “Want a snack, Dev? I’ll fire something up once we get clear of the ice.”
There was a long moment’s silence, then Dev cleared her throat. “I’m not really hungry, thank you.”
Jess sighed and closed her eyes. Plenty of time to deal with her freaking out tech. “Yeah, me either.”
Maybe too much time.
IT WAS DARK and there was another storm. Dev rubbed her eyes, focusing hard on the forward scan that filled in details of their path she couldn’t see through the window. Her shoulders were tense, and she was tired, but she’d kept quite the last few hours while Jess worked over the comp in her station.
A glance in the mirror showed her partner leaning forward, staring at the comp pad with her elbows resting on her knees and her chin braced on her fists, a perceptible furrow creasing her forehead.
Dev went back to her controls, flexing her hands a little as she checked the course. She had the carrier on autonav, but the weather was shoving them around a lot, and she didn’t want to stray too far from the throttles.
Deciding they were on safe course for the moment, she triggered the release on her strapping and stood up, stretching her body out as she walked quietly over to the drink dispenser.
“How’s met?” Jess asked, after a moment.
“We are going around the edge of a storm,” Dev answered. She selected a beverage and watched as it was assembled. “I think once we get past it our flight will be smoother.”
“Anything on comms?”
“No.” Dev took her cup and turned, leaning against the console and regarding Jess. “Just two nav beacons on autonomous.”
Jess leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. “That’s strange,” she said. “Should be some chatter.” She regarded Dev’s slim form, encased in its lined jumpsuit. “Do an all scan and see if you pick anything up. At the least, Northern should be checking in. We’re not far from there.”
Dev nodded. “I will,” she said. “Do you think someone saw or heard the other machine blowing up?”
Jess’s lips tensed into a smile. “You’d think, huh? That old training cave is inside Northern’s scan range. I should get them on comms and tell them I took care of their pirate problem for them.”
“I think they will be surprised.”
“I think you’re right.” Jess pulled a pad over and synced comms to her station. She put her headset on and tapped out a code, setting the comms channel to scan the local bandwidths. “Let’s see if they have a beacon out.”
Dev went back to her seat, but didn’t take it. She stood by her chair watching the consoles, giving her back a chance to straighten and lose its stiffness. She felt the rumble of the carrier’s engines through the soles of her boots, and she resisted the urge to close her eyes.
She was still upset, and still worried about Doctor Dan. But she was also tired, and looking forward to getting back to the citadel. Maybe Jess was right, and they had more information about what had happened, and then they could figure out what to do about it.
Maybe they were already doing something about it. Maybe Bain might have sent someone out already to try and help, or at least find out where they were taking him.
She hoped so. Maybe by the time they got back to the citadel, it would be over and Doctor Dan would be safe. Dev leaned against the front console and looked out into the darkness. It would be nice to get just some time to rest and sleep, she reasoned, in the comfortable bed in her quarters.
“Huh.”
Dev turned, and saw the frown on Jess’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“Not getting anything on scan,” Jess muttered. “Not even a listening beacon.”
“What does that mean?”
Jess folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not sure. It could just be met interference. Happens sometimes. Or maybe the rig at Northern got knocked off line. That happens sometimes too.” Her eyes flicked over the pad. “I don’t want to send a squirt out, it’ll ident us.”
Dev set her cup into its holder and walked back over to where Jess was sitting, coming round the side of the weapons console and looking at the comms display Jess had up. The spectrum was empty, that she could see herself, without even the background scatter she was used to flickering once in a while. “That is quiet.”
“Too quiet,” Jess said. Then she exhaled and pulled the pad over, bringing up the control surface and keying in an encrypted data channel. “I didn’t really want to do this.”
Dev just watched quietly, one hand on the back of Jess’s seat, as she finished setting up the call request and initiated it. She pressed her ear cup a little more firmly and concentrated, as they waited for a response.
For a very long moment there was nothing. Then a soft burble sounded and the comms link went from pulsing to green. “Ten, ten,” Jess said.
“Ack,” the response came back.
“Inbound, passed North. No sig,” Jess reported.
“Ack,” the response repeated. “Standby.”
Jess settled back in her seat. “Least we got a response,” she said. “I wonder if they heard something.”
“Drake.”
The voice coming back startled both of them, and made Jess lean forward. “Here, sir.” She started moving her knee in a nervous motion.
“Don’t bother with North,” Bain said. “Where the hell have you been?”
“As far as Market Island, sir. Had to transfer back via boat, steal a pirate’s old carrier, blow that up, get my bus back, and now we’re inbound,” Jess said, succinctly. “Situation?”
“Just get here as soon as you can, Drake,” Bain said. “We’ve got trouble.”
Jess felt a mixture of excitement and pleasure, along with a tinge of apprehension. “Ack.” She fell back into battle speech.
“Tell him about Doctor Dan?” Dev whispered, anxiously watching her face.
Jess hesitated, then triggered the comms again. “Sir.”
“Drake?”
“We spotted two black trans outbound with battle damage.”
Now the silence was on the other end. “Ah,” Bain finally said. “Interesting coincidence.”
Jess and Dev exchanged looks. “I’ll squirt the comp,” Jess said, when the silence continued. “We saw activity.”
“Do not bother, Drake. Just get here,” Bain said. “Out.”
Jess studied the closed channel for a moment, then reached up and canceled the sub carrier. “So.”
Dev went back to her area and sat down in her chair, triggering the restraints. She leaned forward into flight position, and ran her eyes over the controls, trying hard not to throw up her recently drunk tea. “So I guess you were correct,” she said, after a minute. “They wouldn’t send us.”
“No, I figured they wouldn’t,” Jess answered quietly. “They knew what my vector was. They’d have rerouted us when they sent the recall.”
“I see.”
“Sorry, Dev.”
“It’s all right,” Dev said, after a bit.
Jess got up and came over, sitting down on the carrier deck next to her chair and leaning back against the console. She extended her long legs out and sighed. “Let’s wait until we get back and find out what happened,” she said. “I know I keep saying that, but I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Dev glanced down at her. “It really is okay,” she said. “I just remembered something that Doctor Dan once told me. He said it was so important to get all the facts first, before you do something because, for example, if you’re thinking of walking out a door, it would be very helpful to know first if there was vacuum outside.”
Jess chuckled softly. “Yeah. It’s a hoary old saying in the corps. Know what teeth are in the mouth you’re sticking your hand into.” She reached over and put her hand on Dev’s calf. “Glad you get that.”
Dev did get it. She wasn’t entirely sure she agreed with it, but she understood that she had very few options to do anything else. One of the other things she’d learned from Doctor Dan was patience, and now she knew she had to be patient and wait to see what would happen.
“Want some rations?” Jess asked. “We’ve got another twelve to the base.”
“Yes,” Dev said. “But maybe we could get some rest. My eyes are bothering me. We’re past the storm now and met’s clear the rest of the way.”
Jess smiled more easily. “In that case, let me get the bunks set up. Chances are we don’t get any downtime when we get back, so we’ll take advantage of some good weather now.” She got up and patted Dev’s shoulder, heading back to the rear of the carrier to put the sleep platform in place.
She wasn’t sure if she should feel anxious or not. The fact they’d gotten Bain on the wire as soon as she called in seemed like it was a good thing, but he’d sounded pissed off about her taking so much time to get back. She pulled the shelf down into place, and popped the doors on the sleep bag storage, tugging the two plush bags out and sliding them into place.
Well, she’d been halfway across the planet on a mission. Jess patted the two bags and turned to rummage in the ration case when she stopped, staring into it as her mind registered what she was doing. She looked over at Dev, who was taking readings and adjusting knobs, pretty much what a tech was supposed to do, but here she was not only catering to her partner, but enjoying doing so.
What the hell?
“Thank you.” Dev had joined her. “Should I get you some tea?”
“Um.” Jess pulled out two ration kits and handed her one. “Yeah, sure. Thanks.” She sat down on one of the fold out stools and opened her meal. It was fish rolls and mushroom cakes, and just looking at it felt like being back in the citadel. “That stuff on the boat was better than most of this.”
Dev was seated next to her, busy with her own box. “Do you not like it?” She took a bite of the fish roll. “I think it’s fine. A lot better than some of the things we had in the creche.” She felt a sense of anxiety thinking about that, a mental image of looking at those sterile trays coming into her mind. “The food on the boat was good too, but the best thing was those shrimps.”
“In Quebec?”
“Yes.”
It seemed so long ago. Jess smiled, and bit into her fish roll. “We’ll get back there again,” she said. “Y’know they have a winter festival in a month or two. We can go for that. Most of the citadel does.”
“Is that like a party?”
“A little.” Jess felt herself relaxing. “But it’s more fun.”
Dev remained quiet for a while. “I think I’d like that very much,” she finally said, when they were almost finished. “I hope we get a chance to do it.”
“We will. I promise.” Jess put her wrapping away in the recycling bin and unzipped her jumpsuit, stripping it off and letting it hang from her waist. She sat down on the edge of the sleeping platform and pulled the aid kit from the drawer underneath it, removing a cleaning pad and wiping off the almost healed wound on her shoulder.
Dev finished her tea, setting the cup into the holder and walking over to the sleeping shelf. She pulled the catches down on her over-suit and took it off. That left her in her under-suit, and she sat down on the shelf, letting her legs dangle as she waited for Jess to finish. “Your cut is almost gone.”
“Yeah.” Jess had smeared some antiseptic cream on the jagged line. “Just don’t like to take chances, ”˜specially after that damn stab in the back.”
Dev reached out and stroked her arm, tracing the burned in patterns. “Jess, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” Jess eyed her.
“Can I get one of these when we get back?”
Jess stopped moving. “One of what...one of these?” She pointed at her markings, watching her partner nod. “You don’t have to do that, Dev. Techs don’t.”
“I know. You said that,” Dev said, in a calm voice. “But, if they do end up sending me back, I would like to have one so I can remember it.” She looked away. “And remember you.”
Jess sat there, stunned. Both by Dev’s words and by the gut wrenching upset they stirred in her. She opened her mouth to deny the possibility and then stopped, finding herself unwilling to lie to Dev. Or to herself for that matter.
“Sometimes,” Dev continued quietly, “they take stuff from you. In programming. They erase stuff.” She gazed thoughtfully at her feet. “But I don’t think they can take one of those things away from me.”
“Dev.”
“Doctor Dan said he’d make sure I could keep everything but...” Dev paused. “I don’t know what’s going to happen now.”
Jess let her hand fall and exhaled. “Yeah, okay. If you really want one I’ll do it for you,” she said. “Give you one for the last run we did, and this one even though we didn’t finish it out.”
Dev nodded in what looked like relief. “Thank you. I’m sorry if that caused you discomfort.”
Jess finished her tending. “Yeah well it’s gonna cause me a lot more discomfort if they try to send you back, because they’re going to have to go through me to do it.” She pulled up her under-suit and stripped out of the jumpsuit, draping it over the bars and hoisting herself up onto the sleeping platform next to Dev. “Discomfort to the point of blowing my head off. Lay down. Let’s get some rest.”
The lights dimmed as they both settled down next to each other, the soft rumble of the engines sending a rhythmic vibration through them. Jess folded her hands over her stomach and looked up at the overhead, visible in the dim lighting as a blur of gray dark weave.
After a few minutes she turned her head, to see Dev curled up on her side, head resting on her arm, eyes closed. As she watched Dev’s face, those eyes opened and met hers. She felt the physical sadness there, and reached out to put her hand on Dev’s arm. “We’ll be okay, Dev.”
Dev smiled and put her fingers over Jess’s, letting her eyes close again.
Jess closed her own eyes and let her mind go still, only to be nudged by a memory that surprised her. Her father joined her for an unexpected dinner at the citadel.
She hadn’t even known he was visiting. He had just shown up at the entrance to her quarters that night and she’d been so happy to see him she hadn’t thought to ask him why he was there.
Plain dinner, just talk about home, and family, and her progress in the corps. She’d said something about them, and us, and her father had swirled his drink in his cup and sipped it, watching her over its rim.
“Jesslyn. Those are powerful words, us and them,” he’d said. “Be careful. One day you might find yourself to be the us, and this—” He’d circled his finger to include the citadel. “Might be them.”
She hadn’t understood then. But now, lying here in the dim light, she suddenly did. Because when she’d just said, “We’ll be okay.” Her and Dev had been we, and Interforce had somehow, become them.
Chapter Three
DEV TOOK THE controls as they came within range of the citadel. From the outside, the huge cliff side looked unharmed, and in the pale gray light of midday there was little action to be seen around it. “Control, this is BR270006, inbound,” she enunciated carefully into the comms, once the short-range beam had come up.
“BR270006, acknowledge.” Control came back in response. “Standby for deck open.”
“Sounds normal,” Jess said, from her fully strapped down and activated position. She had her hands on the weapons controls and the guns had power, but were for the moment quiescent.
Having little to compare it against, Dev just nodded. She curved the carrier around the craggy peak and then slowed to hover, as the hanger roof started to peel back.
She felt well, and rested. They had slept almost all the way back, and she’d woken to find herself tucked into Jess’s arms, which had surprised her but in a very good way.
It wasn’t even raining. Hadn’t been for several hours, and Dev wondered if they might have a minute or two to go to that little shelf and look out at the sea.
The roof finished retracting, and Dev tipped the carrier forward a little, inspecting her path before she settled lower and engaged the landing jets. “We’re entering the bay.”
She saw the weapons active indicators switch off, as she gently moved lower into the cavern, descending through the rings of lights. “Control, this is BR270006 requesting a landing pad.”
“Stand by, BR270006.”
Dev could see a lot of activity around the cavern, there were at least ten carriers on pads, and four more in tech prep, more than she’d seen there before.
