Of Sea and Stars (Partners Book 3) Read online

  Dev put away her equipment and walked over to stand by Jess. “People off the planet as well,” she said. “The DNA profile chains in that material match what I had in the database from the crèche.”

  Jess looked at her. “You mean, they came from there?” she asked, in a surprised tone.

  “It appears so.” Dev folded her hands in front of her. “But most of them are more successful than the results from station.”

  Doug joined her near the entrance. “Oh, boy. This is gonna be interesting.”

  “And maybe not in a good way,” April said. “You were right, Jess. Things do happen to you.”

  Jess took Ben by the arm. “You’re coming with us.” She started down the hall. “Let’s not give them any warning.”

  DEV PRIVATELY HOPED that whatever it was they were doing would be concluded soon. It had been a long day, and she was a little tired.

  They walked down another long rock hallway, this one pitched downward, with a finished stone floor that showed signs of a lot of wear. She saw pits in the surface, and in some places it seemed to have been patched.

  They went around a gentle curve, and she felt the brush of air across her face, and with it a scent. “Jess.”

  Jess turned to her. “What’s up?”

  “I can smell dirt,” Dev said. “Synth dirt. I remember it from the lab.”

  Both agents had their blasters out, and now they all slowed. Jess motioned for the techs and their unwilling guide to stay behind.

  Dev had her scanner in her hand, and she tuned and re-tuned it, watching Jess and April slide forward down the hall toward a large set of metal doors. Besides the bio behind the door, she wasn’t picking up any returns that could be people, or weapons, or people with weapons.

  Excellent. Hopefully. There was no scan or potentially disruptive energy, and she caught Jess’s signal to come ahead. “This all seems correct.”

  “I don’t get it,” Ben muttered. “They’ve been guarding this since forever.”

  “Maybe guarding it against random people is different than guarding it against us,” Doug suggested, with a brief smile. “Have you seen what’s in there?”

  Ben hesitated. “No.”

  “Bring that up here, Devvie.” Jess touched the door, feeling along the fold between both of the leaves of it. “I don’t want to blast this if I don’t have to.”

  Dev and Doug came over and started scanning the locking mechanism. It was huge, the bolt roughly the size of Jess’s arm, and they could see ones the same size buried into the rock floor beneath.

  Through the gap, they could all smell the odd, nose tickling smell that Dev had called dirt, and when April pressed her ear against the door, she reported hearing a repetitive hissing sound.

  Dev leaned close to her. “I think that’s irrigation,” she said. “Watering the plants,” she clarified. “But it’s hard to tell.”

  “Can you open the doors?”

  “No, Jess.” Dev looked disappointed. “It’s not an electrical system. It’s mechanical.”

  Jess regarded the door. “Ben, how else can we get in here?”

  “Don’t know,” Ben said, glumly.

  Jess stepped back. “Get away from that opening.” She drew her heavy blaster and braced herself, triggering the blaster and squinting as a blue beam emitted from it and impacted the metal.

  At once, a loud alarm started flaring, echoing off the rock. April immediately drew her blaster and turned. “Get down!” she yelled at them, bringing the big rifle up and aiming it back down the still empty hallway.

  Dev and Doug dove for the ground and pulled Ben down with them, moving into a small angle to get some protection, leaving the air clear for April to shoot as the nomad braced and aimed, going off safety with the gun, taking on a brief flare of pre-aim.

  Jess finished the center lock and dropped to one knee, aiming at the ground and sending the blaster fire under the door.

  The alarm cycled and grew louder, then softer, then louder again, echoing and echoing through the rock. April had her eyes pinned on the last curve they’d come around, her finger tightening on the triggers.

  The hallway remained empty.

  Jess finished cutting the bolts, and then she stood up and walked over to where April stood, peering past her. “What the hell is the point of that alarm?”

  Ben scrambled to his feet. “There were guards here,” he said “And more should have responded. You know the drill, Jess.”

  Jess peered at the emptiness, then shrugged as Doug and Dev joined them. “C’mon.” She turned and went to the doors and gave them a shove. They rocked back and then unexpectedly opened forward.

  “Crap!” Jess somehow got out of the way, and the rest of them ran for the walls as a blast of air rolled out, with a cloud of gritty substance behind it.

  Jess bounced off the wall and started back inside, with April at her heels, both agents hauling their rifles up and around as they disappeared into the cloud.

  “I don’t know what the hell’s going on but I’m outta here.” Ben started running in the other direction.

  “Let him go,” Doug said. He got his scanner out. “Let’s go before we miss the fun.” He took off after April, raising a hand up to shield his face from the particulate in the air.

  “Yes.” Dev was already on the move, blinking her eyes as the dust from the explosion faded. She brushed the dirt off the screen and drew in a breath full of organic smell as she came around the edge of a tall plastic wall and almost crashed into Jess’s back.

  The two agents were standing at the edge of a platform, looking up. The cavern roof overhead was full of phosphorescent illumination, a rich yellow-green color that bathed everything inside. On the platform, across the entire length of the cavern were trays and trays and trays of plants in a rising series of levels.

  Outside the alarm was still going off.

  Jess turned and looked at Dev. “What the hell?”

  “I don’t know.” Dev had her scanner at her side, amazed at the cavern. “The other man ran away, Jess.”

  Jess put her blaster on it’s points and walked over to the platform. She heard water and she peered into the side and blinked as a gentle wash of liquid hit her face. She licked her lips experimentally then grimaced and wiped the back of her hand across her face.

  “Doesn’t taste good?” April guessed.

  “Chemicals,” Jess responded.

  Dev came over and touched the nearest plant. “This is...um...” She leaned closer and inspected a leaf. “I think this is corn.”

  Doug edged up next to her and reached over, touching the leaf with a look of amazement. “No kidding, really?”

  “Really.” Dev peeled down the sides of a roughly obloid item, exposing rows of small nubs. “See?” She turned to Jess. “Those are seeds, and you cook them if you want to eat them. They served them to us once or twice in the crèche. Everyone liked them.”

  Jess leaned over and sniffed it cautiously. “Huh.”

  April walked slowly in an aisle down the center of the platforms. She looked from side to side, her rifle cradled in her hands. “Doug, make sure we’re clear,” she called back over her shoulder. “I’m going to try and find that alarm to shut it off.”

  Dev tilted her scanner up and was studying the readings from the roof of the cave. “What is that, Jess?” She pointed at the glowing substance.

  “No idea.” Jess regarded it. “I mean, well, I know there were some glow rocks around back in the day. But not like this.”

  “No one else is in here,” Doug called out to his partner. “We’re clean.”

  Jess held her hand out and watched the yellow-green light bathe it. “Is this like rad?”

  “Something like. Yes.” Dev regarded her instrument. “Not exactly like, and not like some of the growing chambers on station, but it’s a light frequency that allows for photosynthesis.” There was a distinct tone of awe in her voice. “Jess, this is amazing.”

  “It’s what the oth
er side was trying with that crazy thing that blew up, isn’t it?” Doug asked.

  “Maybe.” Jess walked along to the next section and stopped to regard the thing growing in it. She reached out and took hold of the small, green hanging pods and carefully twisted one off.

  “That’s a pea.” Dev reached down and felt the substance it was planted in, bringing back her fingers covered in damp brown. “This is dirt. The cloud that came out when the doors opened was also dirt, only dry.”

  They were covered in it.

  “A pea.” Jess experimentally put it in her mouth and bit into it.

  “No, Jess you...” Dev grinned a little at the face her partner made. “You don’t eat the outsides...here.” She took the pod and prised it open, exposing three perfect, round green beads. She selected one and put it in her mouth, then offered the pod to Jess.

  With a doubtful expression, Jess took the second and ate it, chewing it slowly. Doug took the third pea and bit it in half, mouthing it before he swallowed.

  “That’s weird,” Doug said.

  “A little like some of the round things on seaweed,” Jess said. “Not bad.”

  The alarm cut off abruptly, and in the silence that echoed afterward, they all heard hissing and the drip of water and a soft fluttery sound all around them.

  It was odd, and suddenly to Dev, familiar. She drew in a breath and released it, then followed Jess and Doug as they walked along the pathway toward where April stood, rifle braced against her hip.

  As they crossed a path, Jess stopped and brought her gun up, moving sideways and putting herself between the opening and the two techs as they spotted a lone figure moving toward them.

  Dev scanned it. “It’s the man who went with us, Jess. You said he was called Chris?”

  “Yeah.” Jess rocked forward, putting her center of balance over the balls of her feet. “Maybe he can tell us what’s going on here.”

  April arrived at a lope and joined Jess in the crossroads. “This place is crazy.”

  “You turn off that alarm?”

  “No.”

  Jess cradled her rifle as Chris arrived, his arm still strapped to his chest. They faced each other in a tense pensive silence before he looked around, then exhaled.

  “What?” Jess finally asked.

  “I turned off the bell,” he said. “No one’s going to respond. Everyone’s glad you found it.” He shifted a little in discomfort. “No one felt right about it, Jess.”

  “No one?” Her dark brow arched.

  He shrugged a little. “Jimmy’s gig,” he said. “Yes, a few were in it with him. Some of the bright kids, they put this together and were jazzed up about it until...” He stopped.

  “Until what?” Jess asked in a surprisingly gentle tone.

  “They thought it was for us,” Chris finally said. “As in, for the stakehold. New stuff, good stuff, new foods, for all of us.”

  “He was probably going to sell it,” April said. “No crime in that.”

  “No. Was going to make real good money on it he said, to Quebec and the like,” Chris said. “Then they came asking.”

  Jess went still. “They?”

  “Someone told them.” Chris looked uncomfortable. “They heard, you know they do, Jess, and two of them came one night to talk to Jimmy.” He paused to take a breath. “That was before the big blow out. Then we thought it was all over with, after the fight.”

  Jess watched him closely. “But they came back.”

  “I think so. Don’t know really,” Chris said. “But I think he met with them in the rough.”

  “Today.”

  Chris nodded. “He said he was at the processors. We know he wasn’t.”

  “He made a deal.”

  “Maybe. I don’t know, Jess. You should ask the family.”

  Jess looked around, at the space. “You’re right,” she said, after a pause. “Let’s go.” She circled her finger to include her group. “Someone has answers.”

  Dev followed Jess back down the hallway, with Doug at her side. “Interesting,” she said.

  “This night’s going to end with blood.” Doug predicted. “Massive amounts of not coolness.”

  “Non optimal.”

  “That, too.”

  “SOMEONE’S GOING TO tell me what the deal is,” Jess said, facing a semicircle of relatives, most a little foggy with sleep, all looking at her with undisguised apprehension.

  As they should. She and April were armed with guns without safeties on, and after all, she’d killed Jimmy earlier. They all knew the Drake temper. They all knew what she was.

  Dev was seated at a console in the corner of the business room in the stakehold, her scanner out, her eyes shifting from it to the board she was working at. Doug was seated next to her, just watching.

  Jimmy’s wife was missing, and his other two kids. No one seemed to know where they were.

  Jake was the only one with slivers of guts. “Jess,” he said, after a very long silence. “It’s not what it looks like.”

  Jess rolled her head and looked drolly at him. “Really?”

  “It was an accident.” Her brother stood up and put his hands in his overall pockets. “Finding out about the glow, I mean. We were just messing around with some stuff.”

  “You were messing around with seed stock and proto soil obtained from Biologic station two,” Dev said. “Are you certain you don’t have access to this system? I don’t want to damage it.”

  Everyone turned around and looked at her. After a moment, as if sensing that, Dev looked up, “I come from there,” she said into all the silence. “I do know what the substances are.”

  Jake exhaled. “Fuck.”

  Jess and April exchanged glances. “Go back to your carrier,” Jess said. “Send a request for an investigation team. They need to get over here ASAP.”

  “Right.” April scanned the room, shook her head and left.

  “You’ll get points if you tell me what the story is before they get here,” Jess said, sitting on the edge of the table behind her.

  “Or you’ll shoot us?” Jake’s wife spoke up, in a bitter tone.

  Jess shook her head. “I’m not going to shoot anyone, unless someone starts shooting at me. I’m going to hand you all over to Interforce Security and let them deal with the collusion issue.”

  “Bio Station two is on our side,” Jake said. “That thing comes from there!” He pointed at Dev.

  “I know,” Jess said. “But if you’d done a legit deal with them, we’d know. Look, people. The stakehold didn’t buy in to whatever this was. Someone broke honor. They know it, I know it. You might as well spill it.”

  “No one here knew but me and Jimmy,” Jake finally said. “I mean, we all knew something was being done, but only Jimmy and I knew who we were talking to.”

  Jess looked at him.

  “So, yeah, we did a deal with a guy. We didn’t know if he was the other side, but he could get us what we needed, and that was stuff to test those glow rocks with.”

  Dev went back to the console, attaching the leads from her scanner to it and tuning it carefully. It all sounded very incorrect and non optimal and she felt a discomfort in her guts just thinking about it.

  The screen came back with a challenge, and she studied it, then called up a program of her own from the scanner and set it to run.

  “So it worked,” Jake said. “Aren’t you glad, Jess? Do you know how much that stuff’s worth? We could make it big. Why are you acting like this is something criminal? Jimmy was going to sell this whole new crop to Quebec. We finally got something to make the place independent.”

  “Because a mini transport from the other side landed on our edge two days ago,” Jess said, in a quiet tone. “And Interforce wondered what they were looking for.”

  Now the silence had a completely different flavor to it, and Jess smelled real fear. “They thought maybe someone was arranging for a hit on me.” She smiled. “I thought that’s maybe how they got to dad.”
r />   Uncle Max stood up. “Jesslyn, do you know what you’re saying?

  Jess got up off the table and walked over to him. “Yes.”

  A small bleep and a muttered grunt from Dev distracted her, and she turned and detoured over to where Dev was seated instead. “Whatcha got, Dev?” She peered at the screen. “That’s the filestore.”

  “Yes, I am decrypting it,” Dev said. “And I...JESS!”

  Jess felt the pressure in the room change and she turned and brought her gun up and fired with literally no thought involved. “GET DOWN!” She bellowed at the rest of the family, who dove for the floor as two armored figures entered and fired back.

  “Oh, not good!” Doug grabbed ahold of Dev and dove under the console, hitting the recall key on his comms that linked him to April. “Tac! Tac! Tac!”

  JESS DODGED THE blasts and dropped to her knees, firing up into the chest armor of the two attackers, who aimed past her and swept the room.

  She saw the closer one’s rifle move in Dev’s direction. A second later she let out a booming roar and lunged at him as she fired at the second man. The rage came on so fast she had no control over it, the view going black and white as she ripped the gun out of the hands of the enemy soldier, then reversed her motion and slammed him in the head with it.

  She heard a crack and a popping sound, and she threw the gun away from them against the wall, her fingers curling into the broken piece of his armor, yanking hard.

  The other soldier was abruptly shoved forward and then was gone out of her peripheral vision, and she could concentrate on the opponent who was grabbing for her.

  She could see a skin suit now and she reached inside the armor, evading his grip and bringing one boot up to shove him backward, growling all the while. Her fingers got a hold of his throat and she started squeezing as he hit the wall. She straightened up, shoving his much larger body against the rocks.

  She heard a shocked male scream behind her, but had no time to wonder what April was doing as she shoved her weight against her adversary’s arm and pinned it to the wall. His body started to jerk as she closed off his airway.