Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3) Read online

  Dev tried to imagine what that was like. She reviewed her programming and tried to think of something so profoundly unpleasant that she’d been geared to enjoy and couldn’t. “Okay,” she said. “I’m glad you’re happy about it.”

  Jess slid down in the water and stretched herself out, enjoying the gentle buoyancy. “But you lucked out. I used enough spare energy to not want to go surf the rest of the day.” She watched the muscles to either side of Dev’s mouth twitch. “You’re such a good sport about that, Devvie.”

  Surfing was difficult. Not only difficult for her, but occasionally dangerous and often painful. Dev nevertheless participated when Jess wanted to, driven by her urge to make her natural born partner happy.

  Programming, yes, but also a deep inner emotion that supported and surrounded that programming, reinforcing it to cause her to subvert her own comfort willingly.

  Was that like Jess enjoying being struck?

  Dev frowned, then applied herself to the water again. “I’m almost done with this session. Would you like to get some sun replacement after we finish?”

  Jess leaned against the wall, a mildly distracted look on her face. She glanced up at Dev. “I would. C’mon, race ya!”

  Dev good naturedly started forward, having no illusions whatsoever that she could keep pace with Jess. She’d gotten much better at swimming, but Jess moved through the water like she was part of it.

  They reached the other side of the pool and started back, swimming shoulder to shoulder as Jess alternated between strokes, her head turned to watch Dev, the translucent eyelids that protected her eyes underwater glinting faintly.

  She kept her breathing air-based though, and they continued a dozen more laps before they hoisted themselves out of the pool and stood dripping together for a moment, as a crowd of others moved past from the weight bearing area.

  They were aware of the looks they both got, brief and shifted quickly away. Jess ignored it and led the way over to the changing area, grabbing a towel as they walked inside and tossing it to Dev. She wiped her face off and roughly dried her hair, then let the fabric drape around her neck.

  April and Doug entered. “Hello, there,” April greeted, as she went to a set of lockers across from theirs.

  “Hello,” Dev answered, as Jess lifted a hand in acknowledgment. “How was the new sim set, Doug?”

  “Eh.” Doug waggled his hand, as he stripped out of his jump suit. “I don’t like the new autonomics much. Feels laggy.”

  “Everything feels laggy to you, rookie,” one of the older techs told him. “All you do is bitch about the gear.”

  Doug held both hands out. “Can I help it if this stuff is older and draggier than school?” He half turned. “You try it, Rocket. See what you think.”

  Dev toweled her body off before getting back into her work suit. “Well, I haven’t had much to compare it to, but I will be in them this evening.” She paused, noting the older tech was staring at her neck. “So we’ll see.”

  The tech jerked around straight and faced his locker, and Dev glanced behind her to find Jess relaxing, her glare moderating to something more normal.

  Deciding she had nothing to add to the conversation, she did up the catches on her suit, covering her collar, and took her towel and the wet exercise suit to the recycler.

  Brent caught up with them as they exited. “Hey. You hear they’re opening up a senior track?” He said to Dev, coming up on her right side.

  “Yeah?” Jess peered past her. “You should try for that, Devvie.”

  Thankfully, programming supplied the information promptly. “Do you mean a senior technician position?” Dev asked.

  Brent nodded.

  “I don’t think so,” she replied in a mild tone. “I don’t think they’d like a bio alt applying for that. People already have discomfort. Are you?”

  “Tried twice. Ain’t got the brains,” Brent admitted. “Bet you could do it.” The difference in Brent’s attitude and the older tech in the gym was striking.

  “How about if I assist you to study for it?” Dev said. “I would like you to achieve that if you want to.”

  As much as his naturally morose expression allowed, he brightened. “Sure.”

  “Excellent.” Dev lifted a hand in goodbye as Brent split off from them and headed for the simulators. Then she glanced up at Jess, who was frowning. “It would be nice to help Brent, don’t you think?”

  “He’s a rock head, for a tech,” Jess said. “You’re wasting your time. You should go for it yourself. You’d ace it.”

  “Possibly.” Dev followed her along the corridor toward their sun replacement rooms. “But I would rather avoid the discomfort,” she said. “I have noticed there is a lot of that in the new teams who came here after the attack.”

  “Hm.” Jess palmed her room open. “C’mon in with me.”

  “Of course.”

  They entered the rad chamber and removed their clothes. Jess went to the console and coded in a session for both of them.

  When she re-entered the main room Dev was relaxing on one of the two translucent lounges and she paused to regard her before she took a seat on the opposite couch. Dev was short and compact, but visibly muscled just under her skin and that always seemed a little at odds with her calm and polite manner.

  “That cut looks like it is causing you discomfort,” Dev said. “Would you like me to put a bandage on it?”

  “Nah.” Jess lay down and let her body go slack, feeling the distinct ache of hard use and now the faint sting of the cuts she’d gotten. “Not unless it starts spurting blood,” she added, as an afterthought.

  Dev half sat up and peered at her.

  “Just kidding.”

  Dev lay back down and folded her hands over her stomach.

  “Have jackasses been bothering you?” Jess asked, after a moment of silence. “Giving you a hard time?”

  Dev considered her response for a bit before answering. “It’s just things I hear that people are saying, but not to me.” She glanced at the other couch, seeing Jess’s pale blue eyes looking directly back at her. “Generally when you are not present.”

  Jess’s nostrils flared a little.

  “So, thank you so much, Jess, for being so nice and thinking I should try to achieve that new grade, but I think it will just make people even more uncomfortable.”

  Jess sat up and swung her long legs off her couch, resting her hands on the side of it and leaning forward. “Screw them,” she stated flatly. “Dev, you’re as much an ops tech as any of them are. You’ve got full status. You’ve done more than most of them have and they’re just jealous of you.”

  Surprisingly, Dev nodded. “Yes, I understand that. It has to do with status, and that’s very important to natural borns.”

  Jess’s brows lifted.

  “And bio alts, too, actually,” Dev admitted. “We always want more status.”

  “But it also makes you a target.” Jess’s expression shifted to pensive. “Don’t I know it.” She rested her elbows on her knees and laced her fingers together. The reddish gold light of the rad darkened her skin, but the burned in designs on both arms were still visible.

  Dev resisted looking at her own arm, which had a handful of the designs as well. “Let’s wait until we do a few more missions, Jess,” she said. “Then the next time maybe I will try that. I think it’s better if a few others get it first, since they told me it’s been a long time since it’s been offered.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Jess sighed, and stretched out on the couch again. “It just pisses me off.”

  Dev got up and went to kneel down by Jess’s couch, putting a hand on her arm. “Please don’t be upset, Jess.” She leaned forward and very gently kissed Jess on her ribcage, then put her cheek down on the spot and looked up at her face.

  For a brief moment, it remained a stony mask.

  Then the grim tension dissolved, and Jess’s expression softened as she smiled a little, one hand reaching to stroke Dev’s chee
k. “You’re so good to me, Devvie. Everyone else thinks I’m just a grumpy maniac, but you never do.”

  “You’re not.” Dev smiled, glad she’d done the right thing. “You’re amazing, Jess.”

  Jess smiled back, and edged over. “C’mon it’s big enough for both of us up here.” She surrendered to the peace she knew was there, hovering at the edge of her own insanity, wrapped up in this mutual affection.

  “Absolutely.” Dev got up on the lounge and curled up against Jess, winding her arms around her in contentment, glad to let the rad lull them both to sleep.

  DEV STOOD NEXT to her carrier, the sounds of ongoing construction in the cavern almost overwhelming. She resisted the urge to cover her ears and continued her walk around the pad, checking the newly installed engine pods and moving past the open hatch to run her hand over one of the joints.

  Overhead the sound of rain on the recently finished roofing thundered, but the giant new forward doors were half open and she could see other carriers on slow patrol, watching it.

  Clint came up onto the pad from the diagnostic station. “Hey, Dev, everything okay?”

  “It seems so,” Dev said. “And, also, I would like to say congratulations on your new promotion.” She indicated the insignia on this collar.

  Clint grinned, looking around before he leaned an elbow on the carrier. “Thanks, Dev! I was trying for this one a while. Nice they put it all through after all the last mess. Bumped my allocation up, too.”

  Dev grinned back. “Excellent. It’s good to be successful.”

  Clint returned the compliment with a wink. “You should know. I heard they opened a senior track. I know you’ll make it on the first go.”

  Dev drew breath to argue, then paused. “Thank you,” she merely said. “Actually I am looking forward to taking this carrier out and getting some longer range metrics on the new engines.”

  He nodded and shared the contents of his readout pad. “Well, you’re ready, so if you want to start checks have at it.” He indicated some of the contents. “I’m interested to know if this torque upswing works out.”

  Dev glanced up as she spotted Doug heading for his carrier parked on the next pad. She lifted a hand as he called a greeting, almost completely unheard in the overriding noise.

  “You taking the kids with you?” Clint asked. “I have their rig on standby.”

  “Yes, they will accompany us.” Dev patted the engine pod and turned. “Let me get things ready to fly.” She walked up the ramp and passed the skin where her name and Jess’s were stenciled and paused. “Oh, Clint?”

  He hurried over. “What’s up?”

  Dev glanced around. “Please do me a favor?”

  “Anything.”

  “If someone has some idea to change this to that Rocket thing, please don’t let them. I’d rather it be my designation.” She pointed at the skin.

  Clint regarded the block letters. “Don’t think they mean that as an insult, Dev. I heard one of the other techs talking more like it’s,” he paused, “...kind of a your one of us sort of thing.”

  She considered that. “I don’t mind them calling me that. It’s just this is my designation. It’s who I am, and I would like that accurate on my...um...our vehicle.”

  “No problem, Dev. I get it,” he said. “I got your back.”

  “Thank you.” Dev waved a little and went inside, bypassing the quiet and dark weapons station and slid into her pilot’s seat up in the nose. The wraparound cockpit showed new and freshly installed modules everywhere and she paused a moment to look at them.

  She folded her hands over her stomach and considered a somewhat new sensation as given programming was overlaid with learned experience gained as she had installed most of the new components, and in some cases, gotten a suggestion or two in on their design.

  She tried to compare the two different sets of knowledge, but it was hard, as they’d now integrated to a reasonable degree and she had to remind herself what she’d been given and what she knew of her own self.

  With a soft grunt, she slid forward a little and started bringing up the carrier’s systems. She reached out and picked up the comms and settled it in place, hooking it into the carrier pilot suit she was wearing.

  The big machine came alive around her, boards lighting and the talkback whispers starting in her ear cups as she prepared to bring the engines online.

  She glanced to her left, out the big window, and spotted Jess entering the cavern, walking alongside April.

  The former nomad was taller than Dev, but Jess towered over her, one of the tallest female natural borns Dev had yet met. Both women had on their half armored suits, weapons seated at hard points. They casually crossed the floor in conversation with each other.

  Dev could see others watching them. Some of the cavern techs in brief interest, some of the bio alt techs in serious consideration.

  That was complicated. The bio alts in general in the Citadel tended to regard Jess positively for a number of reasons, not the least because of how Jess treated Dev. They didn’t tend to have the wary fear of her that some of the natural borns did.

  But Jess seemed to be in a reasonably good mood today, even laughing at something April said as the other agent angled off toward her carrier, leaving Jess to come onto her own. She looked up as she did, meeting Dev’s eyes through the plas.

  Dev smiled and waved, and her smiled broadened as Jess waved back, giving her a little salute as she walked along the grated floor on her way to the carrier entrance.

  In preparation, Dev lit up the weapons console, bringing all the boards online as she heard Jess’s steps on the ramp. The carrier rocked just slightly on it’s skids as Jess entered. “Hello.”

  “Hey, Dev.” Jess settled her long blaster into its clips and dropped into her chair. “We ready to go?”

  “Just about.” Dev watched the reflective panel over her head, and in a moment Jess’s pale eyes met hers in it. They both smiled in reflex at each other. “I’m glad we can go and do some good work.”

  “I was bored, too,” Jess said. She pulled her restraints around her and secured them then triggered the hatch closure. “Let’s get flying, NM-Dev.”

  Dev triggered her own restraints and settled herself as her seat rocked and shifted forward. “BR270006, comm check,” she said. “Standby for systems regen.”

  “BR270006, clear comms,” the voice from flight ops answered. “Standing by.”

  Jess heard the soft whine of the engines spooling and whistled softly under her breath as she commissioned her systems.

  She felt the faint twitch as the power systems exchanged, and the pop and thunk as Dev released the feeds. Jess was aware of a distinct sense of relief, glad indeed they were headed out. She cracked her knuckles and checked that her restraints were all the way retracted. Very glad.

  Chapter Two

  DEV SET COURSE and trimmed the engines before she looked back over her shoulder. Jess was sprawled in her chair, her boards quiesced at least for the first part of the short flight home. “One hour flight time,” she said. “The other carrier is behind us, slightly to the left.”

  Jess nodded. “This is going to be interesting since I didn’t warn them I was coming, or that I was bringing guests.”

  “Is that going to cause discomfort?”

  “Oh yes.”

  Dev spent a few more minutes getting the carrier all sorted before she turned in her chair to face Jess. “Is that a good or bad thing?” she asked. “It is difficult for me to determine what we’re seeking to achieve in this effort.”

  Jess’s expression was wry. “Ah, Dev.” She sighed. “Where do I start? Remember I told you the last time we went to the Bay it was different?”

  “With the scans and everything. Yes,” Dev answered. “But since it was only the second or third place I’d been it was hard for me to tell the difference. But it seemed more like...more like a base than the Quebec place or the other places we went.”

  “It is more like it.
” Jess wriggled into a more comfortable position. “Back in the day, after everything went to crap, it took a little time for it all to fall apart,” she said. “The governments fell apart last because they had the most to lose.”

  Dev folded her hands and just listened, programmed history surfacing.

  “Last thing that went to pieces, was the armed forces.” Jess went on. “And parts of those forces were...well, let’s say they’d been working for a while to get the basic human being and goose them a little.”

  Dev’s brows creased a little.

  “Not too different from you, really,” Jess said. “Some things don’t change, I guess. But there were forces that were being genetically tweaked. Bigger. Stronger. Hardier.” She picked up a cup from her console and drank from it. “Remember I told you my mother paid some quack to mess with her eggs? That was what was left of all that after all this time.”

  “Oh,” Dev said. “I didn’t know that.”

  “They leave that out of most histories,” Jess said. “Anyway, back in that day there were a couple of those guys who decided, after they weren’t getting paid anymore, to find a place and set up shop for themselves, and take all their buddies with them.”

  “I see.”

  “Their names were David and Brian Drake.” Jess smiled. “They had two sisters named Sally and Jess.”

  “Oh!” Dev sat up a little. “Like your name?”

  “It’s a family name,” Jess said. “All of them had been in that special program.” Jess’s blue eyes twinkled a little. “So they took the last of the transports they could steal, and they found Drake’s Bay, just a bunch of caves in a mountainside on the edge of the sea.”

  “So all of them were soldiers?”

  “All of them were,” Jess confirmed. “And they were mostly mean and aggressive sons of bitches, and didn’t get along either with each other or the people left in the area, who they beat up and pretty much enslaved.”

  “Oh,” Dev said. “That doesn’t sound good.”